The end of December - because that's when we finished preparing the January issue - is the best time for all kinds of summaries. And like every year, we ask practitioners and architecture critics to write what they consider a success and what they consider a failure in a given year. We do it in the convention of Kits and Hits. We give our Authors and Authors total freedom of expression and exceptionally we do not moderate this discussion. We are just very curious about it. For us, the biggest setback of this year was a marked decline in interest in the competition procedure. The large number of tenders for important spaces in Polish cities testifies to the fact that it is not quality that is most important, but cheapness. This is a very disturbing trend. We consider the pandemic-enforced interest in ecology, the climate crisis and the social relations resulting from the use of architecture to be a success. Much remains to be done, but the accuracy of the diagnosed problems makes us optimistic. 2020 has already made history, so we look to the future with hope!
- A&B Editorial Board
Maciej Miłobędzki and Anna Cymer on putty and hits in architecture of 2020
What's important in architecture?
What important events did 2020 bring to Polish architecture?
He asks this question in the studio to the young, talented, interested. A longer silence. "Maybe the construction of a housing estate in Warsaw's Wola district, which can compete in density and level of architectural monoculture with the molochs of Hong Kong (only in a slightly worse environment)?" "The most confusion and problems were caused by the change in the interpretation of regulations on downtown development. I was hoping for examples of interesting buildings, they always liked to talk about it. And in architecture itself as such? "It's nice that architectural prizes are increasingly being awarded to small, socially useful buildings. Of course, it's good that the trend, which has been going on for a long time in European countries, is also revealing itself in Poland. Social contexts prevail!
Architectural qualities, unfortunately, are less and less talked about (after all, everything we do is socio-political anyway). Other imported trends, although taken up with enthusiasm, do not always find fertile ground. Following the global intensification and the patient work of local enthusiasts, architects are standing up for the climate. In this area, we are making declarations that will be difficult to live up to. Willingness is not enough, but trying is necessary. What can be done is within the limits of normative, technocratic reality. Architectural magazines published examples of such aspirations this year. The certified buildings on the spreads with responsible "green" aspirations have little in common, well, except perhaps for the color of the all-glass walls of the increasingly unnecessary office towers. The green class of these buildings is evidenced by the dense weave of air-conditioning equipment and ductwork that we are given to admire in aerial photographs. We learn that they were designed using specialized software to optimize the carbon footprint and are an expression of concern for reducing energy consumption. Great! At a glance, however, we see that they themselves create the problems they claim to be fighting.
Some architects have switched to working remotely this year, but not all have persevered in this for long. Documentation production is thriving in the new reality, team work on concepts worse. Nevertheless, interesting projects are being created. The hope is that they will be revealed in 2021! One good thing is fewer unnecessary meetings. Teams and Skype don't win out over the appeal of business class travel. So we have a little more time to think. Unfortunately, much of it is taken up by organizational procedures: establishing connections, handling programs, applying new work techniques. Nothing surprises us - we know that "wherever man enters the field of technical progress, he falls prey to organizational activities. Technology not only covers needs, it also organizes them ... it forces man to serve it" (Friedrich Georg Jünger).
Remote architectural education also has its glories and shadows. There has been greater variation in the level of student projects. The inferior ones suffer, among other things, from limited opportunities for instructors to give sketchy comments. It is possible that the excellent ones owe their class to the same.
Maciej MIŁOBĘDZKI
architect, partner at JEMS Architects
Only the hits
I don't think anyone doubts that 2020 sucked. It's not hard to list the disastrous events of the past twelve months and their even worse consequences. That's why, in an effort to look for positives and good memories at all costs, I won't deal with the putts this year. I will focus attention exclusively on the hits. This year, more than in previous years, we need positive news and an optimistic outlook.
Availability
Did the pandemic give something good to architecture? By all means! The transfer of hundreds of architecture-related events, debates, lectures and even walks or curatorial tours to the Internet has eliminated the distance barrier to attending such events. The increased accessibility of such meetings was quickly reflected in the numbers - because what live architectural lecture held was seen by three thousand viewers? And now there are dozens! The move to online mode has given people from other cities a chance to participate, people who don't always have time to watch the event live, and those who prefer to divide lectures or debates into episodes and watch them piece by piece. The fact that YouTube has been filled with interesting debates and lectures on older and newer architecture, available at any time and for free, is undoubtedly the good side of the pandemic. Knowledge about architecture has never been so accessible.
One cannot underestimate, by the way, all the organizers of these events, who had to turn their way of doing things upside down from one day to the next and put in a great deal of work to carry out their program and deliver attractive events to connoisseurs of culture locked in their homes, despite extremely unfavorable circumstances and without any help "from above."
Voyeurism
Who doesn't enjoy peeking into ground-floor apartments during evening walks? This shameful activity during the pandemic has been excused: the shift to remote working mode has allowed full-fledged voyeurism through a computer monitor. In this way, we gained access to the private spaces of many lesser or more familiar people. We were given the opportunity to get an idea of the tastes of co-workers or interior design trends, but not only that. There is no doubt that what we saw behind the backs of lecturers, teachers, directors and co-workers has already become the subject of extensive research and will soon result in sociological analyses. Specialists will probably be able to tell a lot about us based on the fragments of our homes made available to the world.
Locality
The pandemic has changed our horizons of vision. Not so long ago it seemed that the world had no borders, that every corner of it was at our fingertips. This illusory and, above all, nightmarishly damaging to the planet belief (like the environmentally lethal flying to London for the weekend "because there were cheap tickets") has been eradicated fairly effectively by the pandemic. During the first spring lockdown, it turned out that it wasn't Easter spent in Venice, but being able to go out on one's own balcony is what gives true happiness. We began to appreciate the city's parks and groves, the not-so-popular tourist destinations, the neighborhood stores and markets. The understanding that locality is needed and worth appreciating in the modern world has long been called for by urban planners. And the pandemic has shown what the good of locality is. Those who live in a multifunctional, diverse space, offering all daily functions in close proximity, certainly felt safer and more comfortable in the pandemic; those who, from suburban, gated neighborhoods devoid of any infrastructure, had to go somewhere for every errand, probably felt it was a hassle. A neighborhood store, a neighborhood park, local artisans or a neighborhood sports center are worth appreciating not only in a pandemic.
Changing the scale
Even before the pandemic swept the world, we began to appreciate small-scale, tailored buildings that fit the needs and character of the neighborhood. This year there has been an even greater emphasis on this type of realizations: just look at the results of the competition for the Architectural Award of the President of Warsaw, the plebiscite Architecture of the Year of the Silesian Voivodeship or the SARP Award of the Year; proof is also the triumphant march through the architectural awards of the XYstudio studio, the authors of the house for the homeless in Jankowice or several kindergartens and nurseries with a very intimate and adapted to the needs of children. We seem to be moving away from large scale, effects and spectacular masses for good, turning to close, friendly objects that are there to serve, not to impress. This is a good, right direction of change, especially in view of the climate catastrophe, which, although somewhat forgotten in the pandemic, has not ceased to be a great threat.
Anna CYMER
art historian, popularizer of architecture, author of the book "Architecture in Poland 1945-1989", published by CA and NIAiU
