A graphic novel by Dr. Lukasz Wojciechowski of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology has just hit the shelves of bookstores in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. This unusual comic not only tells the fascinating story of Czechoslovak architect Bohumil Balda, but was drawn in probably the most popular architectural program, AutoCAD.
Who is Bohumil Balda?
The narrative of the comic focuses on the transformation of the protagonist. The Czechoslovakian architect becomes enamored with the newly discovered Nazi ideology, and his unhealthy fascination leads not only his career, but also his person to moral decline.
"Mechanical Sun" ("Soleil Mécanique") takes readers to Hradec Králové, and the action is set in 1937. We meet a young architect with ideals who is convinced of the rightness of modernist architecture. We follow him as the protagonist enthusiastically creates avant-garde designs and views the Nazis and their anti-modernist rhetoric, which is completely alien to him, with great suspicion. The architect's hated father-in-law is affiliated with the NSDAP. Everything changes, however, when Bohumil himself starts getting commissions for projects for the local party leadership. At first with reluctance, and his appetite grows as he eats. Over time, he already pursues his subsequent concepts with fascination, while becoming more and more convinced of fascist ideology.
"Mechanical Sun" | photo courtesy of Wroclaw University of Technology.
I wanted to show the process by which a person becomes evil. My protagonist initially justifies his departure from his principles and moral norms by the fact that he simply has no way out. He is short of assignments and his wallet is shining empty. Over time, however, he makes more and more concessions, and then "soaks it in." He becomes enthralled by Nazi architecture with its monumentality, rhythm and "purity" and stops to see how soulless it is and created for the masses, not individuals. He also gradually becomes blind to rational arguments about the criminality of this ideology. I wanted to show how easy it is to become confused and fascinated by evil - to succumb to propaganda. The story of Bald is the story of the madness of a man who has lost himself so much that he takes the most extreme Nazi ideas for granted," says Dr. Lukasz Wojciechowski, author of "Mechanical Sun" and a researcher from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology.
"Mechanical Sun" | photo courtesy of Wroclaw University of Technology
truth or fiction?
Although set in the real world of the 1930s, the comic is a fictional story that only draws inspiration from the history of architketure. However, Dr. Wojciechowski "tricks" the reader a bit by showing visualizations of Balda buildings in his drawings, deceptively resembling photos from old architecture magazines. Who is the author of these designs? The author of the comic himself - Dr. Wojciechowski, who also designs other buildings and installations around which the plot of "Mechanical Sun" revolves - those modernist and those commissioned by the NSDAP, including a scene for Nazi speeches, referring to the premise of Albert Speer's Nuremberg Cathedral of Light, in which more than a hundred anti-aircraft searchlights pointed toward the sky formed pillars of light. Both installations were meant to fascinate viewers, to seduce them.
"Mechanical Sun" | photo courtesy of Wroclaw University of Technology.
- I am very interested in the history of architecture of the twentieth century.I spend a lot of time paging through trade magazines from decades ago, visiting the buildings described there and learning the stories of architects, those more and less famous. This is how I know how many European designers succumbed to the fascination of Nazism or collaborated with the Nazis. However, I do not judge them unequivocally, because I believe that we do not have the right to do so, looking at their lives from today's perspective. We don't know exactly their situation, we don't know whether they were intimidated, for example. But I've always wondered what it could have been like for an architect who had been designing for years, holding to certain ideals, to suddenly start cooperating with the know-nothings. This novel is, in a certain sense, a simulation that I carried out. With each page, however, it becomes more and more absurd, because in this way I wanted to show the absurdity of the delusions of grandeur of the Nazi regime. - says Dr. Wojciechowski, in an interview on the portal of the Wrocław University of Technology.
"Mechanical Sun" | photo courtesy of Wroclaw University of Technology
unusual drawing technique
The entire comic strip "Mechanical Sun" was created in AutoCAD. It is not a typical drawing tool, but for a scientist from Wroclaw University of Technology and an active architect like the author, it is nevertheless the most natural and most frequently used working tool.
"Mechanical Sun" is Dr. Wojciechowski's second rukka story, with the first- "New City".hitting foreign bookstores last June and appealing to connoisseurs of comics, but also to those interested in architecture and urban planning.
