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On October 13, 2020 there was a LIVE series " Architects for the 21st Century" with prominent personalities of the world of architecture. This time we spoke with Jola Starzak and Dawid Strębicki of Atelier Starzak Strebicki and Jan Sikora of Sikora Wnętrza Architektura about ARCHITECTONIC EDUCATION.
What is architectural education like in Poland today?
Do we need systemic changes?
A well-educated designer, that is, what kind of designer?
Where is the best place to study architecture and design majors in Poland?
What do students fail to learn at college?
We will look for answers to these and other questions - be with us!
Save the date: October 13, 6:00 pm
Jola Starzak and Dawid Strębicki (Atelier Starzak Strebicki) - architects and urban planners (members of the Wielkopolska Regional Chamber of Architects and the Chamber of Architects in the Netherlands). After studying in the Netherlands and working for design studios in Belgium and the Netherlands for many years, they opened their own design studio Atelier Starzak Strebicki in 2012. It carries out projects in interior design, architecture and urban planning in Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. In design, they are intrigued by the diverse scale of design activities: from the scale of interiors, through the design of houses, public buildings to the scale of urban planning of the city, with special attention to city-forming functions. They are also close to temporary architecture and experiments in the urban fabric. In 2016, the studio was invited to participate in the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, and one of their participatory projects "Kijkgat" was presented at the Biennale in the Belgian Pavilion as part of the "Bravoure" exhibition. Jola Starzak and Dawid Strębicki regularly collaborate with, among others, the Bęc Zmiana Foundation and the School of Form and the Urban Management course at Collegium Da Vinci in Poznań. At School of Form, Jola Starzak is a lecturer and supervisor of the Design course, and at the Urban Management course Dawid Strębicki is a lecturer.
Jan Sikora, Ph.D. (Sikora Wnętrza Architektura) - interior architect, architectural designer, owner of Sikora Wnętrza Architektura studio (www.sikorawnetrza.com) - born in 1984, author of more than one hundred private and public interiors and architectural objects. He has designed interiors of such venues as the Polish Institute in Palazzo Blumensthill in Rome, Seafood Station restaurant in Sopot, Jastny Dwór in Bąków, Stacja Kultura in Rumia, Hotel Number One in Gdańsk, Art. Inkubator in Sopot, Sopoteka, Marie Zelie showroom and many others. Creator, idealist, visionary. Creates unique places periodically receiving the most important Polish and foreign awards. At the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, he leads a course of study devoted to understanding the realization between space, culture and man called Architecture of Cultural Spaces. For his projects, he has received, among others, the Architecture Award of "Polityka", Lump of the Year and the international Library Interior Design Award. Privately: traveler, fan of electric bicycles and good cuisine.
Online meetings in the series "Architects for the 21st Century. Architecture of Tomorrow" with prominent personalities of the Polish architectural scene
The series kicked off in June 2020. The architects invited by A&B talk about their own perspective on the current times, their projects and their ideas on what the architecture of tomorrow should look like. The meetings are live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook with the opportunity to ask questions on the Facebook profile of our event. We encourage you to also ask questions before the meeting and send them to: malgosia@archibi.pl
The climate crisis, the global economy driven by the idea of continuous growth plus recent events related to the forced lock down situation or remote work are forcing changes in the approach to design and architecture.
The era of old-architects designing iconic buildings that are expensive to construct and operate, which are landmarks of their cities, but also monuments to their authors, is coming to an end. However, energy inefficient buildings are still being constructed: they require heating in winter and intensive cooling in summer, and the materials used in them, such as glass, steel and concrete, contribute to increasedCO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
We live in a culture of constant growth pressure. Architecture, being part of this process, influences economic and social inequality, the rise of consumerism and the greenhouse effect in our cities. Yet we continue to build more premium glass office buildings, luxury development estates with fences and remote control gates, shopping centers on the outskirts of cities or in their centers causing an exodus of residents fromthese places, short-term rental apartments, we invest in parking lots, road infrastructure and everything that in theory is supposed to improve the quality of life in the city, but in practice reduces it. On top of that, we are cutting out greenery and parks for new developments instead of adapting existing buildings to changes. The meetings are for discussing alternative scenarios, diagnosing probems and looking for solutions in these very troubled times!
Previous meetings
1 Maciej Siuda, Marcin Wicha
"Around Design in the New World".
Will lockdown change the approach to design? Are these changes likely to be sustainable? To what extent will it be the architects who will be able to get involved in the embodiment of a new world, a new order, and take advantage of the existing situation in such a way as to design responsibly, flexibly, in the spirit of circular economy, and above all serving to improve the quality of life in the urban environment?
2 Jerzy Szczepanik Dzikowski, Maciej Miłobędzki
"A rational approach in irrational times".
Will lockdown change the approach to design? Are these changes likely to be sustainable? To what extent will it be architects who will be able to engage in building a new world in a new order and take advantage of the existing situation in such a way as to design responsibly, flexibly, in the spirit of circular economy and, above all, serving to improve the quality of life in the urban environment?
3 Matthew Mastalski (Henning Larsen Architects),
Hugon Kowalski (Ugo Architects).
Sustainable city? Architectural competitions? Do these buzzwords open a can of problems facing architecture in a post-pandemic world, or are they rather effective ways to solve them? How to design cities today and who should do it? Architects or residents? Who has the right to the city? Who decides what it looks like and how we live in it? What values do we need in architecture to design well-functioning cities that don't contribute to the degradation of the planet and the ecosystem? Is sustainability now mainly a very catchy marketing slogan, and is there a place for it in the discourse on engaged architecture and urbanism?
We discuss the differences in urban design from the Polish and Danish perspectives.
4. Jolanta Starzak, Dawid Strębicki (Atelier Starzak Strebicki),
Jan Sikora (Sikora Wnętrza Architektura).
During the next meeting of the series "Architecture of Tomorrow. Architects for the 21st Century" with prominent personalities in the world of architecture, we talk with Jola Starzak and Dawid Strębicki of Atelier Starzak Strebicki and Jan Sikora of Sikora Wnętrza Architektura. The topic of the conversation is ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION. What is architectural education in Poland today? Do we need systemic changes? A well-educated designer, that is, what kind of designer? Where is the best place to study architecture and design majors in Poland? What don't students learn in college?
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