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 this 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 editors
Malgorzata Kuciewicz and Simone De Iacobis of the Centrala Design Group on the kits and hits of 2020 architecture
HIT
In 2020, we have all developed a planetary imagination, experiencing the interconnectedness of distant phenomena on the planet. Resonate the concepts of "systems approach" or "circular health" - relationships between the health of humans, animals, plants and ecosystems, including in the city. Voices are resounding about the inbreeding and helplessness of the architectural community in the face of the challenges of violent phenomena. In the architectural debate, there has been a redirection of attention to non-urban areas, to greenery in the city, design for animals, Lo-Tech (Local Traditional Ecological Knowledge). We can follow the discourse from a distance, thanks to the reachability of online events from around the world. The eruption of content begs all the more for a guide, a page aggregating links to records of architectural meetings from 2020. There's plenty to watch and analyze for months to come. We personally follow three sources.
100 Day Studio is a channel of The Architecture Foundation. For one hundred working days from April 6, the community associated with the British architectural scene met on Zoom and shared experiences. You can replay for yourself, among other things, Tony Fretton's sensational lecture on facades, a guided tour of Peter Wilson's solo exhibition (from Bolles+Wilson) or listen to Alternative Histories Talks (talks by the curators of the Drawing Matter archive, among others).
The second channel is anti-RAMA, hosted by "an urban collective bringing together the Silesian creative industry, particularly interested in the future of Polish cities." The voices of host Lukasz Harat and guest speakers accompany our breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There's nothing like archiplottery, boasts and reminiscences from our Polish urban culture sector.
Architects, not Architecture (AnA) are meetings organized since 2015, during which old-architects talk about what shaped them. The rule is one: they are not allowed to talk about their own projects, which is a challenge for many of them. Recordings of dozens of such glamour meetings were made available online in the spring. Some of the performances are tromtadata, but many voices from the architectural olimp point out valuable clues and inspirations. We can watch Mario Botta beautifully recalling the teachings of Carlo Scarpa (architectsnotarchitecture.com/botta), Tatiana Bilbao recalling the 1985 Mexico City earthquake or Daniel Libeskind dissecting a visit to Wieliczka. One can find comfort in the records of a bygone era by practicing internal emigration.
KIT
If we survive, the fundamental concept for the future will be "non-duality," that is, the ability to find unity where we have seen adversity so far
- Mateusz Marczewski wrote in June in his review of the exhibition "The Age of Half Shadows. Art in times of planetary change" at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. The following months prove that as a society we have not yet acquired this skill. For us, the personal failure of this year is our helplessness in finding ways to conceptualize the current crisis.
