regulations are not everything
Konrad Kucza-Kuczynski in his book "Zawód-architekt. On professional ethics and morality of architecture" wrote about responsibility. Regulations and standards are not everything. They should not replace professional decency. In the following pages of the publication, he asked why the provision on locating parking spaces for cars at a distance of not less than 10 meters from the windows of rooms intended for permanent human habitation "does not arouse a responsible reflex to actually take advantage of the provision, that it is a minimum and not an optimum." He says that in the chapter on lighting and sunlight "to the full responsible attitude of the architect [...] the relationship of openings and layout to the sides of the world, primarily the benefit of the southern direction, was missing." On the other hand, the permissible dimensions of the stair tread determined by the formula 2h+2=0.6 to 0.65m say nothing about the comfort of the stair, and "the architect's responsibility for the comfort of the stair is, after all, contained in the index sum of 0.65, not 0.6"¹.
As part of the course of study in architecture, there are classes on professional ethics. Fifteen hours of lecture in one of the last semesters is supposed to prepare past designers for responsible practice of the profession. They receive a pass, a grade, and then already outside the walls of the university they get a solid lesson in cynicism. The hard rules of the market have no mercy for the naive. There are other studios lurking on our order, so forget about what Kucza-Kuczynskiwrote - here is real life!
Layout characteristic of tenement houses (front building in frontage, outbuildings)
combined with modernist-industrial aesthetics.
Photo: Błażej Ciarkowski
Of course, the investor cares about making the maximum profit. The primary goal of the architect, on the other hand, should be to create a user-friendly environment. And unfortunately, this will not be taken care of for him by the "Construction Law" and "Technical conditions...".
Błażej Ciarkowski
¹ K. Kucza-Kuczynski, Zawód-architekt. On professional ethics and morality of architecture, Warsaw 2004.
