#YoungPolisharchitects - Barbara Nawrocka and Dominika Wilczynska on starting out in the profession.

Wiktor Bochenek

13 of September '22

center of Myslowice

The text is from 07-8/22 A&B.

In our #Mlodzipolscyarchitekci series, we ask questions to young architects about the problems and conditions facing young people after graduation.

Licenses - why are young architects reluctant to get them?

And female architects! How can you be sure that they do not want? Sometimes, working in an office at someone's place, you do not need yourself to sign the projects you are working on. When you get into paid work mode, it's hard to find extra hours to prepare for exams. It takes time and energy. Paradoxically, the easiest way to get professional credentials in Poland is to nostrify foreign credentials, which you get in a package with a diploma from some universities.

Mysłowice city center - Mysłowice | competition proj.: Miastopracownia + Pronobis Studio, water analysis: Designbiotic

Conditions of practice for the young

We don't know, because we didn't start with architecture in its traditional sense, but through soft activities, cooperation with cultural institutions, NGOs and local governments. When we shifted from processes and experiences to designing solids and volumes, we already had a network of connections and relationships, so the starting point was no caesura, but a very smooth transition. Still, to participate in an interesting tender, we need an office-partner for a consortium. To be able to design a large public facility, you need to win a competition for it, and a developer to young women in Poland comes rarely. Despite these limitations, we don't have many reasons to complain. We try to give 1000 percent of ourselves on every project entrusted to us, because nothing brings new clients like recommendations from those previous ones.

Easier start in the profession, that is?

Always invite a minimum of one very young studio to closed prestigious competitions. Turn tenders into competitions and/or open them to those and those who have not yet had the chance to realize in the last X years Y similar investments of equally substantial volume.
Participation in the competition itself should be paid, as long as the work meets the regulatory conditions. With a larger project, a small office must suspend work on other assignments for a month or two. We ourselves rarely take part in competitions, although we would like to be able to do it more often. Currently in Poland, it is more like an expensive hobby than a business model for the office.

Mysłowice city center - Mysłowice | competition proj.: Miastopracownia + Pronobis Studio, water analysis: Designbiotic

It is worthwhile, following the example of our western neighbors, to organize training and advice for young women in architecture on how to cope with business. It is also impossible to ignore aspects of the Polish labor market, going beyond the architectural bubble. When will an employment contract, paid overtime and parental leave cease to be a luxury good?