total materiality
The whole thing can be considered literary imaginary like the quoted passage from the referenced novel. Following in the footsteps of the British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner (1902 - 1983), who in his introduction to The History of European Architecture posited that a bicycle shed is a building, while Lincoln Cathedral is a work of architecture, the problem seemingly disappears. In such a view, only outstanding prestigious buildings deserve to be called architecture like landmarks in a city, while the rest of the urbanized space that is the road between them does not fall into this category and its evaluation makes no sense. However, urbanized space doesn't work that way. More appropriate seems to be the definition of architecture that the late Dr. Alexander Franta once presented in his lectures on modern architecture, that architecture is everything that has been built by people. When I was a student, such a view seemed to me somehow too general and simplistic, and to some extent an excuse for those failed results of architects' work. Today, when we are more interested in the quality of the space in which we live than in the value of individual objects, such a thesis, unfortunately, in a negative way, seems as legitimate as possible. We suspect, and in fact we already know, that architecture and urbanized space are not something indifferent to us, and vice versa.
Katowice
Author: Piotr Średniawa
Architecture as if not to define it is the art of inventing and designing, but first and foremost the activity of realizing physically material things. The undeniable fact that an architectural object is a material object is a statement so obvious that it verges on banality. However, it is counterintuitive insofar as it makes it possible to understand how architecture works. With its enduring material solidity, it distinguishes itself from other arts. A book is also ostensibly an object, but it becomes art only during its more or less attentive reading. A film recorded on tape or electronic medium also has material qualities, but it becomes art only during projection and in the presence of an audience. The same is true of music and theatrical performance, requiring the work to be performed by musicians or actors, or reproduced from some device. Works of these categories of art do exist in the form of various records, but they really become art, and in a fleeting way, only in the course of its reception, whether reading, listening and viewing. In relation to architecture, some analogies are shown by the plastic works of painting and sculpture. However, they require the potential viewer to visit museums, galleries or browse through albums. However, they are, as it were, prisoners of these spaces, interacting with their form only in them and only for a selective audience.
One can, as in a peculiar daydream, imagine a city where all the storefronts are filled with paintings ranging from masterpieces to painterly kitsch, and the streets are lined with rows of sculptures and installations. String quartets, folk bands and rock bands play on every street corner, while symphony orchestras accompany happenings and performances in the squares. On the facades, instead of large-format advertisements, a variety of films are displayed, which are classic items of cinema. Daily newspapers, television news, Internet news and emails, on the other hand, are written exclusively in verse. This would be some peculiar combination of horror and burlesque causing radical opposition and rebellion against art and culture popularized in this way. However, this is how architecture works. Although art in the 20th century has become egalitarian and increasingly popularized compared to previous centuries, its scope of social influence is still limited to a group of conscious recipients. The exception is architecture. It is, as it were, constantly ready and open to perception and contact regardless of the will and aesthetic preference of the viewer. This distinguishes it in a fundamental way from other fields of art, and perhaps that is why it is called the queen of the arts. It is impossible to confine architecture to a museum space, a library or a concert hall. Its permanent existence in the space around us makes it a total art, regardless of its quality. In spite of our will, we have all become its recipients, and the everydayness and ordinariness of this commonplace phenomenon causes indifference to this fact. What is the point of invoking these obvious and familiar attributes of architecture? The urbanized space that surrounds us is not indifferent to us, and neither is the quality of the air, whose contamination and pollution we do not feel either, even though it is harmful to our health. Poland's declining quality of space, chaos and shoddiness are as toxic as the smog we inhale. Unfortunately, rising quality of life, rising GDP, access to services do not go hand in hand despite the commitment of relatively large resources with improving the quality of our Polish space.
This syndrome, perhaps not in such intensity, has also become a pan-European problem in recent decades. It has gone far beyond the purely aesthetic, and has become an economic, financial, social, sociological and therefore political problem. Modern democratic systems no longer rely on the creation of great national ideas, but both politicians functioning at the national and local levels, as well as contenders for office, have been obliged to present programs that improve the quality of life of the citizens of the countries concerned, including the quality of the surrounding space.
New European Bauhaus
In politics, however, purely pragmatic programs are insufficient, and there is a need to create declarations with a broader horizon and a longer perspective, while realistically addressing current challenges. Such an initiative was the Declaration of the European Ministers of Culture passed on January 20 - 22, 2018 at the Davos Conference defined as: "Toward a High-Quality Baucaultur for Europe." Faced with the following diagnosis: "aware of the trend towards a decline in the quality of both built spaces and open landscapes across Europe, evident in the trivialization of construction work, lack of design values, encompassing a lack of concern for sustainability, increasing exurbanization and irresponsible use of land, degradation of the historic fabric and loss of regional traditions and identities," a number of demands and commitments were formulated. Among them, a decisive statement that reads: "The design of built space, the relationship between buildings and their man-made and natural surroundings, spatial coherence, scale, materiality: these are factors that have a direct impact on our quality of life. High-quality Baukultur is therefore expressed in the application of conscious, duly discussed design to any construction or land development project, assuming the primacy of cultural values over short-term economic benefit. High-quality Baukultur thus meets not only functional, technical and economic requirements, but also satisfies human social and psychological needs."
Warsaw
by Piotr Średniawa
Following these declarations, the European Commission launched the New European Bauhaus initiative in 2020, and President Ursula von der Leyen, in her 2020 State of the Union address, described the New European Bauhaus "as an ecological-economic-cultural project to combine design, ecology, social and affordable accessibility and investment to support the realization of the European Green Deal. Its core values are therefore sustainability, aesthetics and social inclusion." It would be difficult to formulate a better statement for the negative processes taking place in Polish space. Where as where in Europe, but in Poland such slogans should meet with the most positive response and give impetus to rapid concrete programs and actions. So far, however, the reception of the idea of the New European Bauhaus and the undoubtedly so needed Baukultur in Poland is met with shallow verbal declarations, or sham activities, and to a limited extent only. On the other hand, one gets the impression that we are implementing our New Vistula Bauhaus, heading in the opposite direction. How else to describe the recent amendment to the Construction Law related to the program of building houses with a construction area of 70 m2, which poses the danger of no longer uncontrolled realizations, increasing spatial chaos, and ironically being a component of the "Polish Deal" program . I have a growing concern that, unfortunately, the amount of urbanized space will increase significantly, against which I will not be able to stop my aggressive urges, perhaps fortunately impossible to implement, although I will nevertheless feel a little sorry.
