Cultural Goods from the Clink. Icons and nightmares to protect

Kacper Kępiński

17 of December '20

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Work is underway to protect Warsaw's most important buildings, built since the 1980s. Among them are iconic buildings, such as the BUW, but also widely hated ones, such as the Sobieski Hotel. What is the point and purpose of protecting the mostntis monstrosities and buildings handed over only a few years ago?

In October 2019, Rafal Trzaskowski established a team for modern cultural assets. Its goal is to recommend the protection of specific buildings that do not have the status of monuments, but stand out in terms of historical, artistic or technical value. The group was composed of 22 people with origins in public institutions and social organizations statutorily involved in architecture, urban planning and art in the urban space, universities having in theirtheir scope of education in the field of architecture and urban planning, as well as art in urban space, and from the Office of the Capital Conservator of Monuments and the Office of Architecture and Spatial Planning of the City of Warsaw.City of Warsaw. Among them were Prof. Waldemar Baraniewski, Michał Krasucki, Prof. Marta Leśniakowska, Prof. Bolesław Stelmach and Andrzej Skalimowski. The year-long work of the team has recently resulted in the form of a recommended list of Contemporary Cultural Property.

Criteria for inclusion in the list of DKW

Novelty of architectural and technical solutions

Preservation of relationship with the surroundings

Symbolic significance

Awards and distinctions

Preserved artistic and spatial qualities regardless of the degree of degradation

Individual features

Uniqueness

Scientific value

Icons

Sobieski Hotel

Among the dozens of nominations are buildings of very different scale and function. Often, entire assumptions are recommended, along with the buildings' immediate surroundings. One of the most iconic items on the list is undoubtedly the colorful block of the Sobieski Hotel. Completed in 1991-93, the project designed by W. Trissing, M. Nowicki and H. Piccottini is a variation on the theme of historical buildings in a typically postmodern aesthetic. The building's visually bold facades, mansard roofs and glass dome gave it a bad name. Hailed as the Nightmare of the 1989-1995 Six-Year Period, today it has become an undeniable testament to its era.

Warsaw University Library

The best-recognized building on the list is the Warsaw University Library with its large garden area and landscaping. The project by M. Budzyński and Z. Badowski carried out in 1994-2003 has become a permanent part of Warsaw's landscape and has changed the face of Powiśle. It is also a postmodern decoration and quotes from non-architectural fields of art and science, which build incredibly multi-layered meanings and forms of the complex. Among the nominated churches were the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church (1982-96, designed by M. Martens. L .Kordowicz, T .Szymielewicz), St. Dominic's Church(1983-94, designed by W. Pienkowski, S. Niemczyk) and the Church of the Ascension in Ursynów (M. Budzyński, Z. Badowski, 1982-89).

Precursors of najntis

Agreat deal of controversy was aroused by the listing of the Panorama Shopping Center from the early 1990s (designed by T. Szumielewicz, S. Chrzanowski, M. Koczan, P. Pawlica, T .Katner). Degraded today, the building, wrapped in advertisements, nevertheless has very well preserved exterior and interior furnishings. Finished with high-quality materials, it has aged more aesthetically than technically. However, it is not only an interesting example of turbo-capitalist, transformational architecture of the 1990s. It is also one of the first examples of a contemporary shopping center in Poland.

Curtis Plaza

A similar development marking a new direction in Warsaw's transformational architecture is Curtis Plaza. The office building, commissioned in 1993 (designed by M. Kartowicz, R. Welder), is one of the first examples of the much later widespread use of blue reflective glass and white façade panels, a stretch of simple massing complemented by color accented bolder additions - in this case a purple glass cylinder on the axis of the entrance . The building, by the way, was one of the first developments today building Warsaw 'sMordor in Mokotow.

Mediocrity and background architecture

Bialoleka District City Hall

A more architecturally restrained project indicated for protection is the Bialoleka City Hall. Erected in 1995-1997, the building designed by ARE Stiasny/Wacławek interestingly refers to the architecture of interwar modernism, and the original interiors are also preserved. Also singled out was the complex of Ateńska and Ateńska II housing estates in Praga Południe. Completed in the mid-1980s, J. Kumelowski's project is a complex of mainly terraced houses with characteristic blocks finished in brick.

Latest

Agora

The list also includes buildings erected already in the 21st century. Among them is the Agora headquarters designed byJEMS Architects. The distinctive building finished in glass and wood with a system of internal green courtyards is one of the most iconic works of the time. One of the most recent projects on the list is the Służewski House of Culture, built between 2010 and 2013. The project by the WWAA and 307kilo studio was appreciated primarily for its integration into the landscape and cultural and spatial context. Also appreciated was thePolin Museum building(designed by Lahdelma&Mahlamaki, APA Kurylowicz) completed in 2013.

Controversy

Kaskada office building

While the inclusion of buildings such as the BUW or the Agora on the list of Modern Cultural Assets does not raise much objection, the inclusion of the Kaskada Office Building, the Atrium building complex or the Sobieski Hotel in the list of protected buildings is often met with a lack of understanding and opposition. It comes both from outside and from the community of architects and art historians. As Prof. Lesniakowska noted during the recent debate "Young Heritage - Opportunities and Challenges" (Tu było, tu stało), it is estimated that only 3-5% of the buildings erected should be referred to as architecture. The rest of the buildings are examples of construction, and therefore, in Lesniakowska's opinion , lower-order creations. However, it is the generic, common and average examples that are the most representative examples of buildings of a given era. Despite the objections of some experts, they, too, should be protected, although calling them cultural assets may arouse internal dissonance and disputes. Similarly, legal protection and entries in the records or registers of monuments are extended to average and correct interwar or earlier realizations.

Kolmex

Similarly problematic are the buildings that won antecedents during the period of their construction and even today their appearance rather arouses embarrassment, pity and disgust. So it's not just a matter of aging materials and architectural solutions themselves, but a problem that often lies in the design itself. Transience and scarcity, however, as Aleksandra Stępień-Dąbrowska pointed out during the same debate, are inherent in the DNA of the architecture of the transition period and must not stand in the way of embracing the protection of postmodernism buildings.