Alicia G: So let's go back to the universities.
James: Universities tend not to change their curricula, sometimes details are updated, courses are added, but the approach doesn't seem to change from the creation of the curriculum. Years pass, needs change.
Apolonia: I studied at the Wrocław University of Technology, and now I envy Varsovians that they have new instructors. Here we have the same professors all the time, who have been giving the same assignments for years. There are very few instructors whose practice you can look at and think, "Oh, what he's doing is really interesting, I'd like to be in his class and meet him."
Anna: This problematic situation that universities don't teach us, or that they haven't taught us anything new for years, doesn't only apply to architecture, it's rampant in other fields. Sometimes it's a staff issue, sometimes it's a program issue. Personally, I think that the instructors themselves should expand their knowledge. We learn about new trends in architecture mainly from the Internet, trade magazines or other media. Unfortunately, lectures are rarely the source of such information.
Alicia JS:Yes, it's very clear which lecturers have their own practices, which work in offices, and which design is over when they started at the university. This reflects very strongly on what we learn. As Apolonia said, some comments have been repeated for many years and are completely outdated. As a result, we leave the university in a state similar to that in which architects graduated from universities x years ago. The realities were different then.
Margaret: A dialogue between students and professors on a partnership basis would be great. We could learn and explore together. It's hard to demand that everyone be an expert in all subjects.
James: We've already talked about the fact that the university doesn't prepare people for work, but there's also a problem with practitioners. The number of architecture students is very large and often there are not so many offices to "mill" these, say, four hundred people from one year. Limiting the number of students may be a good idea, because universities are going for quantity, losing quality. This problem generates another one: there are a lot of graduates on the market, the architect's work is losing its value; it is similar in Italy.
Apolonia: Each of us has been, or is currently, on Erasmus and we have a comparison of how studies are conducted, how responsibilities are delimited, classes passed. We complain a lot about what happens in Poland, but we have to admit that Polish universities educate us in such a way that we have no problems either with the level of knowledge or with adjustment. Polish students are really appreciated for the skills they have acquired while studying in the country. If we can't fulfill ourselves in an active and creative way at the university, we look for other places. For example, we have Meetings and other workshops. Alicia is an example that you can set up an account on Instagram and be active. We live in such times that we have unprecedented opportunities to communicate our initiatives and thoughts. It is enough to want and not to be discouraged, which for me is the biggest challenge.
OSSA Fable, Warsaw, 2019
© OSSA
Alicja G: Tell me, what kind of architecture would you like, what is the ideal state?
Alicja JS:I for one would very much like to be listened to in architecture. And I'm happy that we can meet and talk openly, as we are doing now. It's good that our voice is breaking through, through social media and beyond. This is finally starting a valuable dialogue. Architects are being asked how they feel about the profession, attention is being paid to how many young people are leaving and the reasons for this problem are being sought. I very much wish for such conversations, their conclusions and their consequences.
Margaret: I think each of us would like to know the answer to the question of what the ideal state is. Positive changes are already happening, for example, architecture and the architectural profession are becoming more participatory. We perform a certain service, an example being Hanna and Kazimierz Wejchert, who played an important role in planning the city of Tychy, among others. They were not just enigmatic architects, they were part of the community, vigilant observers. They even lived to see their own monument. Architecture becomes human when we are with the people for whom we create and build the whole thing together. This is gratifying, as are the ongoing discussions about collective work, it's a good direction.
Apolonia: I would like everyone to talk and be honest. So that we wouldn't be afraid to talk about our problems, so that we could boldly exchange experiences, join collectives, try different things. And I would still like my work not to be associated with a lot of unnecessary stress due to a thousand regulations and problems with offices. I would like to go to the office with a smile, ready for a day full of creative work, knowing that what I design will help someone, maybe even make them happy, have a positive impact on the space and on people's lives. Because that's what architecture is to me. We create and create a space that benefits everyone. And it would be great to create it without any stumbling blocks.
Anna: What I care about is that public awareness of what an architect does has increased. It happens that we are insulted for certain behaviors, phenomena and decisions, or our work is depreciated. It not infrequently turns out that these are decisions over which we had almost no influence. Therefore, it is important to understand what the profession is about and what it actually involves. Increased awareness could help a lot, especially in the context of participatory design, which is increasingly popular and should become a requirement. I would also like the design of a building, any building, to be a collective work, the result of teamwork, in which the investor does not necessarily make the final decision. I respect the investors and understand the need to be guided by their own profit, but we cannot allow the desire to reduce production costs to significantly affect the quality of the project. This is especially true in the case of designs for spaces or public facilities, which by design are meant to serve a larger group of people.
James: I would like architecture to be understandable. That the whole process in architecture would be understandable to people outside this universe. It's difficult, but it's my little dream. That people understand what it looks like from our side. I would also like the university to give more freedom, to allow people to focus on the specific interests of individuals, and not overwhelm them with the amount of responsibilities and processes involved in just learning often unnecessary subjects. As the organizer of this year's edition, I would add that the OSSA workshop is a meeting of students who are looking for answers. Together we create a platform for students to communicate between universities to exchange insights and realize what we expect from our profession and ourselves.
Alicja G: Thank you very much for the interview!
interviewed by Alicja GZOWSKA
photographs courtesy of the organizers of the OSSA workshop
Apolonia Slesarow - architect, a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture in Wroclaw, Poland, from which she graduated in 2021. She studied at CEU San Pablo in Madrid and Politecnico di Torino in Turin. Organizer and author of the hybrid edition of OSSA 2020 Spatium. Supervisor of OSSA. Since 2021, she has co-founded the PROLOG project team.
Alicja J. Stefaniak - student at the Faculty of Architecture in Wroclaw, founder of the instagram account @solpolposting, organizer of protests and events. Coordinator of the OSSA 2021 Our workshop, supervisor of the current edition of OSSA 2022 Disappearance.
Jakub Kaczynski - student of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Arts in Poznan, specializing in 3D. Organizer of student events in Poznań. Organizer of the current edition of OSSA 2022 Disappearance.
Małgorzata Rybak - a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology. She also studied at Politecnico di Milano. Reporter for Academic Radio Luz, host of cultural broadcasts, podcasts and talks around architecture. Organizer of the current edition of OSSA 2022 Disappearance.
Anna Piątek - Master's student at the Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology. She studied at Università degli Studi di Genova and Università degli Studi di Palermo. Participant and organizer of events and student projects, mainly focused on the topic of sustainability in architecture. Organizer of the current edition of OSSA 2022 Disappearing.
