The Prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage 2023 in the Architecture category was awarded to Marek Budzyński, architect, urban planner, co-author of the design of the Warsaw Ursynów Północny housing estate and the Supreme Court building in Warsaw, among others.
The Supreme Court building in Warsaw
Photo: Darwinek | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
The annual prize honoring Polish artists has been awarded since 1997. Its winners are recognized for their lifetime achievements or special outstanding achievements of a given year.
The awards are given in categories: Literature (this year the award went to Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the saga of "The Witcher"), Theater (two artists were recognized — actor, Andrzej Mastalerz and theater director — Tomasz Man), Film (the award went to the creator of the animation "Your Vincent" Dorota Kobiela-Welchman), Digital culture (the award went to graphic artist, illustrator and designer Miłosz Lodowski), Visual arts (the founder of the association and gallery "Otwarta Pracownia" Ignacy Czwartos was recognized), Folk art (the award went to self-taught artist promoting the musical traditions of Podlasie — Zdzisław Marczuk), Dissemination of culture (Gołda Tencer, animator of Polish-Jewish dialogue, and Janusz Knap, promoter of Polish culture and folk art, were recognized), Dance (the award went to opera director, choreographer and dancer Henryk Konwinski), Music (violinist Janusz Wawrowski was recognized in this category), Artistic education (the award went to pianist, finalist of the 9th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw Elżbieta Tarnawska), Restitution of lost works (the head of the collections and inventories department of the Asia-Pacific Museum of the History of Asia and the Pacific, Marta Bienias, was recognized), Protection of cultural heritage (the award went to Jan Jarosz, director of the National Museum of the Przemysl Region), Protection of cultural heritage abroad (Anna Sylwia Czyż, a researcher of historic necropolises in the historical eastern lands of the Republic of Poland and "Polish temples" in the United States, was recognized), Design (Aleksandra Gaca, a designer of artistic textiles, was recognized), Patron of culture (Maciej Balcerak, a curator and promoter of art, was recognized) and Architecture. This year, the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Roman Lasocki, violinist, and Włodzimierz Staniewski, theater director.
The award in the Architecture category in past years was won by Robert Konieczny (2011), Tomasz Konior (2016), Bolesław Stelmach (2017), Piotr Lewicki and Kazimierz Łatak (2018), Witold Cęckiewicz (2021) and Krzysztof Ingarden (2022), among others.
This year's award recipient — Marek Budzyński — is a professor and lecturer at his Alma Mater — Warsaw University of Technology. In 1993 he received the Honorary Award of SARP, in 2012 — the Silver Medal for "Meritorious Service to Culture Gloria Artis", and two years later he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland for "outstanding contributions to the development and promotion of Polish architecture, for achievements in scientific and didactic work".
The building of the University Library in Warsaw
Photo: Adrian Grycuk | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0 pl
A special place in his design oeuvre is occupied by the edifices of the University Library (with a garden on the roof designed by Irena Bajerska) and the Supreme Court in Warsaw (both together with Zbigniew Badowski), the Podlasie Opera House and Philharmonic in Białystok (in cooperation with Zbigniew Badowski and Krystyna Ilmurzyńska), which are considered examples of postmodernism, and thethe design of Warsaw's Ursynów Północny housing development (together with Andrzej Szkop and Jerzy Szczepanik-Dzikowski, who mentions the project in his latest interview in the #New Trends in Architecture series).
His realizations emphasize respect for cultural and social traditions, and represent an insightful approach to the relationship between man and nature. Marek Budzyński's architecture exudes an individual style combining fascination with classicism with ecological themes and rich symbolism of the buildings. The main intention of these visionary projects is to creatively combine culture with nature — reads the justification for the award.
