Przemyslaw Borkowicz, one of Poznan's better known and respected architects, has died. Co-author of many important buildings in the city realized in Studio ADS: including the Old Brewery, the terminal of Ławica airport and significant trade fair facilities. An academic teacher, the figure was also valued for his exceptional intelligence and broad horizons. He died suddenly on Saturday, April 16 , at the age of 61.
Przemyslaw Borkowicz (born 1961) was a graduate of the Poznan University of Technology, graduating in 1986. His first job was in the office of Klemens Mikuła, who designed the grounds and facilities of the modernized regatta course on Poznań's Lake Malta in the 1980s. In 1989, he practiced in Oslo. Together with Piotr Z. Barełkowski (1961-2018), they founded Studio ADS in 1989, one of the first private studios, which from the very beginning impressed with its momentum and modern way of doing business. It took the duo the first years to design sales halls, primarily for macro Cash and Carry, but also to realize successful interventions in the fabric of Poznan's downtown, an example of which - fresh to this day - is the extension of a tenement house on 27 Grudnia Street.
The second half of the 1990s was the time when Studio ADS began to create very modern architecture, with timeless shapes, completely breaking with postmodernism, which was still reigning at the time. These include the cases of the Apcon company headquarters in Tarnowo Podgórne, near Poznań (construction: 1999), the MTP trade fair hall (pavilion 3A) on Bukowska Street (construction: 1999) and the first terminal of Ławica airport with a form reminiscent of a hang glider (construction: 2001). For the latter two buildings, the architects were honored with the Jan Baptista Quadro award for the best Poznań realization of the year.
Another two statuettes, as well as many other awards, were given to Borkowicz and Barełkowski for their best-known - and maintained in a different, eclectic convention - Poznan project: the Stary Browar shopping and cultural center (realization: stage I - 2003, stage II - 2007). The creative reconstruction and exceptionally high-quality development of old brick buildings on the edge of the downtown area on Półwiejska Street still inspire appreciation today, and the Old Brewery is one of the undisputed symbols of Poznan.
In a similar convention, Borkowicz and Barełkowski designed the fire station and provincial headquarters of the State Fire Service on the edge of Poznan's Old Town (realization: 2004). Later, on the wave of Browar's success, Studio ADS designed the Cuprum Arena center in Lubin (realization: 2009). Studio ADS also continued to work for the Fair, creating a fully glazed entrance pavilion for the MTP grounds (realization: 2003).
At the end of the first decade, the design duo split up, and Borkowicz began searching for newer forms of architecture on his own. The result was an exceptionally bold proposal for a development at the Kaponiera traffic circle, awarded second place in a 2008 competition. Cube XXI, as this was the name of the project of the cube towering over the area, was not built, however, and in its place today stands the Bałtyk office building from the Dutch MVRDV studio. However, the intimate and exceptionally successful form of the youth theater building at the Łejery art school in Poznan's Citadel has been completed (realized in 2013). The sculpted and flexible shape of the Common Stage (that's the name of the theater) blended in perfectly with its surroundings.
In 2013 Borkowicz founded his own design firm (on the studio's website you can find a full list of projects in which the late architect took part). He carried out projects for investors outside of Poznań, among others, and in recent years he worked with a group of younger designers: his son, Iwo Borkowicz(JEJU.Studio), and Hugon Kowalski(UGO Architecture) on the development of the Old Slaughterhouse site in Poznań. The team ended its cooperation with the developer in 2020, and another office is now responsible for further work.
In the collective memory, Borkowicz went down in history not only as a talented designer, but also as a broad-minded figure, a very interesting interlocutor and a captivating university educator (in 1990-98). This is how Marcin Kościuch of the esteemed Poznan studio Ultra Architects, one of the vice-presidents of the Poznan branch of SARP, who was associated with him professionally for years, remembers him:
An exceptionally creative and above-average intelligent man. He was present on my path towards design from the very beginning. He was the one who let me in the room before the preliminary drawing exam, he was an exceptionally interesting guide to architecture during my studies, and after graduation he offered me a job at Studio ADS. Amazing luck! For seven years in the office, Borkovich introduced me to all the ins and outs of architectural practice. It was excellent to design and discuss with him. A very open mind. Simply put - my master.
The date of Przemyslaw Borkowicz's funeral will be announced on his website and Facebook profile by the Poznan branch of the Association of Polish Architects.
