On Thursday, October 15 at 17:00 in Warsaw's ZODIAK Architecture Pavilion, the results of six months of work by Jan Szeliga and Krzysztof Janas - winners of the THEORY and PRACTICE competitions organized by the Stefan Kurylowicz Foundation- will be presented. The meeting will also be an opportunity to inaugurate the next iteration and start the recruitment for the next edition of the program.
The works of architect Jan Szeliga and sociologist Krzysztof Janas entitled "Wieśland, czyli miejska fantazja kryta strzechą" unprecedentedly won both competitions of the 2019 Edition - the authors proposed both a theoretical vision of a rural amusement park near the Warsaw National Stadium (submitted to the THEORY Competition) and an architectural concept (submitted to the PRAKTYKA Scholarship program).
"Wieśland, or urban fantasy covered with a thatched roof," proj.: Jan Szeliga, Krzysztof Janas
© Stefan Kurylowicz Foundation
The authors of the awarded works have worked for the last six months to develop the vision and architectural plan for the title Vilsand. The fruit of their work is a bilingual publication devoted to the idea and architectural and urban planning concept of a rural theme park in a big city.
ThePractice Fellowship enabled us to deepen the themes explored in the Veseland project. As a result, we solidified our original intuitions and were able to develop the project. We believe that Veseland can be an interesting intellectual provocation, while at the same time proving the latent need for a great longing for idyll and nature that is sustained in the public imagination. As it turns out, this need is not only significant, but also reveals many social and cultural correlations. The theoretical development, and then the opportunity to work on the design illustration of our concept, was a fascinating adventure for us, which we will tell about soon, during the meeting in Zodiac," say the winners.
© Stefan Kurylowicz Foundation
Recruitment for the next edition of the THEORY and PRACTICE Scholarship Competition will begin on October 15 this year. The competition is open to architects who have completed at least a bachelor's degree at Polish and foreign universities, and who are under 40 years of age. The competition is also open to up to three-person interdisciplinary teams, in which at least one of the participants is an architect. Registration of participants will take place via application forms available on the Foundation's website.
In carrying out the programs of the competitions, we are keen that young people have the opportunity to speak out and express themselves. This year's winners have very interesting perspectives on many issues, and are able to see much further than the older ones. During the meeting there will be many opportunities to discover in a unique way that architecture is a part of culture and a fascinating art that serves us all," says Professor Ewa Kurylowicz, Chairman of the Board of the Stefan Kurylowicz Foundation.
