How to shape good residential architecture?
Architecture is a discipline that teaches patience, and the result must be persistently awaited. A good one does not come easily, and often (always?) you have to fight for it, fight many battles, such as negotiations with investors, dealing with formal and legal matters, obtaining all agreements, construction time and the accompanying skirmishes over quality and detail during supervision. It is impossible not to mention the role of an informed and architecturally and quality-sensitive principal. If at the very beginning we do not find with him a platform of understanding, mutual trust and respect, it may be worth abandoning the project. An architect serves others with his work, but not in the sense of an idle one.
Dominants—view from the building / view of Wawel Castle and the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
photo: Jakub Turbasa
Dealing with the issues mentioned above, however, one must not forget the essence of this area. In my understanding—and some generalization—architecture consists of two basic dimensions: practical and meaningful. The former relates to, among other things, form and materials (the corporeality of the building), performance or durability. This is the basis of any architecture. I connect the meaningful dimension with the intangible. This can include the identity of the place, historical conditions, symbolism, but also the motivations of the creator or commissioner. Therefore, when I embark on a design, I try to do as much analysis as possible. I delve into the history of the place and the people associated with it. I peruse the contents of books, old maps, engravings, photographs, archival design drawings. I analyze the time of construction of the surrounding buildings and their reconstructions, the path of the Sun across the sky, perspective openings, changes over the years, decades, centuries. I also imagine how this space will function in the future. All this is done in order to understand the place as deeply as possible and, at the same time, attempt to take a „holistic” view of the project in the given context. I feel an internal obligation to look carefully at what surrounds me. I treat it almost as a moral obligation, because in trust I (we architects) are entrusted with a small, unique slice of the universe for which I become responsible. So I dare to say that place is the physical and spiritual basis of architecture, including residential architecture.
Tenement house under Golden Scissors Cracow | proj.: Jakub Turbasa, Wojciech Zagórski
photo: Jakub Turbasa
This was also the case with the design of the Tenement House under the Golden Scissors in Cracow, on which the historic context had to leave its mark—it consisted, among other things, of the characteristic features of Cracow tenements, the existing one-story tenement house designed by Nachman Kopald, the panorama of the greenery of the Planty, the Wawel Royal Castle, the Baroque Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Saints Peter and Paul and the remaining towers and domes. An important issue for us was, on the one hand, to fit the superstructure appropriately into the historical context, and on the other hand, to express it using the contemporary language of architecture. All this so that the architecture of the tenement clearly communicates what belongs to the „old order” and what to the „new order.” We decided that the architecture of the Tenement House of the Golden Scissors should be characterized by a certain restraint of design, although it does not lack original, contemporary solutions.
Jakub Turbasa
co-author of the project for the superstructure and reconstruction of the historic Tenement House under the Golden Scissors
Dominants—view from the tenement house / view of Wawel Castle and the Church of Saints Apostles Peter and Paul
photo: Jakub Turbasa
Here on the Vistula River there is not only a scarcity of beauty, but an inherited backlog of nurturing beauty needs. Most have grown up surrounded by ugliness and have problems with taste and a proper understanding of elegance, which is based on moderation and appropriateness. Even amateurs of foreign travel tend to overlook the level of modern architecture, and are unfamiliar with the contemporary touts and masters of design. When they build, it is not uncommon for them to choose an architect who can be controlled, and they organize the interiors, which no longer require a designer, by themselves, driving around DIY stores and furnishing stores. An architect is still sometimes a profession that is not always necessary, although required for project approval. Good architecture was created in ancient Rome, medieval Cologne, Renaissance Florence, that is, where the marriage of money and creator-designer prevailed, that is, the interaction of an investor with formed ambitions with an architect. Both must want and consistently interact. This is what any architecture requires, so also residential architecture. And the role of the designer is to take advantage of the qualities generated by the location—in the case of the Tenement House under the Golden Scissors in Krakow, views of the greenery of the Planty, and above them a crown of class „0” monuments: from the Wawel Castle, through the Baroque Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to St. Mary's Basilica.
Jerzy Turbasa
Co-investor of the superstructure and reconstruction of the historic Tenement House under the Golden Scissors
Kamienica pod Złotymi Nożycami Kraków | design: Jakub Turbasa, Wojciech Zagórski
photo: Jakub Turbasa
