On December 19, 2019, Krakow's Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Academy hosted the opening of an exhibition of projects by Ingarden & Ewý, an architectural firm with nearly thirty years of experience. The exhibition, which can be seen at the Krakow Academy until the end of January 2020, features architectural concepts, mock-ups, as well as photographs of finished projects.
The rector, Klemens Budzowski, who opened the exhibition, encouraged students to watch the workshop of architects and draw good models from them. During the inauguration of the exhibition, Krzysztof Ingarden talked about its didactic purpose and about cooperation with students, whom he tries to prepare for participation in architectural competitions. Jacek Ewý, inviting to the exhibition, added:
"You don't need to talk much about architecture, you just need to see it."
On the occasion of the exhibition, Krzysztof Ingarden, co-founder of the Ingarden & Ewý studio and dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts, was interviewed by Dobrawa Bies and Ola Kloc.
Ola Kloc: More than 20 years of activity of the Ingarden & Ewý studio....
Krzysztof Ingarden: In 1998 we founded the Ingarden & Ewý studio, before that we ran the JET Atelier office. We count our history from 1989, when we won a competition for a hotel at the Mogilskie Roundabout in Krakow - so 30 years !
Ola: How do you choose works for one exhibition from such a body of work? Was it a difficult choice?
Krzysztof Ingarden: Yes, it is always difficult to choose projects for an exhibition. For example, the idea for the exhibition we did recently at the invitation of the GAGA gallery in the Malopolska Garden of Art was to show only unrealized projects. There are a lot of such works because we often enter competitions and it's a pity that these unrealized projects, in which a lot of heart, soul and ideas are put into, disappear somewhere in the clouds or in drawers. That's why we called this exhibition "Architectural Cloud of Ingarden & Ewý." But here, with the exhibition at the university, we wanted to show the process of the work in the clash between architectural concept and realization. I thought this might interest our students, who in two or three years will be entering competitions themselves. There always comes such a question - what should a competition be, what should a competition work be, is it some crazy experiment or a good workshop solution? Our works indicate that it must be both. If you manage to create some dope compositions, abstractions - that's great, but if you don't complement them with your knowledge, workshop, thinking about the context and make mistakes, then unfortunately this work will not be good, even though it contains great formal themes. This is what we are trying to teach our students here, that is - experiment as much as possible, because experiment is something extremely important, just like workshop. It's not true that everything has already been said in the history of architecture, and even if it's true, you can always put the same things and present them in a different way, valid for our needs. Just as poetry, which has revolved around the same themes for centuries, can be constantly innovative and moving, architecture can be just as lively and innovative, if only the architect's imagination can find the right emotions, content and language for our time.
An exhibition of projects by the Ingarden & Ewý studio in Cracow.
Photo: Dobrawa Bies © A&B
Ola: It takes a lot of courage to experiment so much, to take risks and push those boundaries in competition projects. Sometimes, in order for a project to win, architects prefer to play a little safer....
Krzysztof Ingarden: This is a question of the goal that an architect must define for himself. To be a seeker and daring experimenter with little chance of realization, or to be conservative, though undoubtedly a good craftsman and enjoy many realized correct buildings?
Dobrawa Bies: How do you combine the work of an active architect with academic work?
Krzysztof Ingarden: I have always been interested in teaching, and my work at the university has lasted for 36 years. At first I was an assistant to Professor Tomasz Mańkowski at the Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Technology then, in the early 2000s, also with Professor Mańkowski, Professor Zofia Nowakowska and Dr. Piotr Wróble, we founded a new department at the Cracow Academy. Teaching is a parallel thing for me. Contact with students, trying to discuss, sometimes difficult and demanding, is an interesting experience for both sides.
We - that is, the teaching staff at our faculty - are at the same time practicing architects from offices that operate in the market. We deliberately invite to teach those architects who have proven themselves in competitions, in realizations and can directly pass on their workshop to students, sometimes warn them of dangers, tell them which roads are safer, which are good, what the whole process of designing and building looks like. Knowledge passed on first-hand is that valuable workshop knowledge on which architecture is based. It is also necessary, of course, to trigger spatial imagination and imagination of the language of forms - an awareness of the history and culture in which we move. Students must feel the pleasure of exercising their unfettered imagination. After all, when can this be done if not while studying! On the other hand, architecture is also a craft, and this craft can only be learned in direct contact with an experienced teacher - a master, artist and craftsman at the same time.
An exhibition of projects by the Ingarden & Ewý studio in Cracow.
Photo: Dobrawa Bies © A&B
Dobrawa: You are undoubtedly an inspiration to students, and does such constant contact with them also influence your design process? Are you inspired by your students' ideas?
Krzysztof Ingarden: Yes, this is a mutual benefit, for the reason that often with students in certain projects we deliberately go further, we don't put some barriers to ourselves, knowing that we can afford to do so. We don't put limits on the imagination, and this sometimes results in crazy things that an architect might not always come up with in his office routine. We test different situations: what would the project look like if we started with the end in mind, and how, if we started with modeling in the body itself. Would it be possible to pin down the features afterwards? We do these kinds of exercises and experiments with more advanced students, such as third-year students. There are capable students among them who do well with these exercises, although it is a very difficult thing. To fashion some solid or create an abstract form, and at the end to drop a functional arrangement into it so that this function is perfectly pure, so that together with the solid and the form it forms a unity, in such a way that it seems that they can no longer be changed. Sometimes it succeeds, then it brings joy and satisfaction for both parties. I think it's good to experiment!
Dobrawa and Ola: Thank you for the interview!
