On Tuesday, November 9, the inauguration of the "Moving architecture" (" Moving architecture ") exhibition took place at Paris' Pavillon de l'Arsenal, an exhibition center for architecture and urbanism. It aims to introduce, or rather, to the French public the work of Robert Konieczny and his KWK Promes studio, so far little known in the country on the Seine.
exhibition opening at Paris' Pavillon de l'Arsenal
photo: DANALKA
This is not some kind of special dislike or ignorance regarding this particular Silesian studio - despite its relatively close European location, Poland and other Baltic countries are perceived by the French as distant and rather "wild" territories. Poland is associated mainly thanks to Walesa, Solidarity, the Pope while in recent times.... well, thanks to the rather intense activities of the anti-European ruling party, and the Polish architectural scene is an area completely unknown to the vast majority.
The exhibition itself is open to visitors until mid-January next year, not at the Arsenal itself, but at La Galerie d' Architecture (the Architecture Gallery), located nearby in the middle of Paris' Marais district. This is a relatively small space dedicated to exhibiting contemporary work by architects, landscape architects and designers from outside France, established in 1999. The Gallery also houses a specialized bookstore and hosts various workshops.
The inauguration of the exhibition began with a lecture by Robert Konieczny. The side room of the Arsenal was filled to the brim. The lecture was held in Polish, with simultaneous translation into French, but to my surprise the vast majority of people present at the event did not need headphones with the French version. I have lived in Paris for more than twenty years, and I think this was the largest gathering of Polish-speaking architects in the city I have ever attended!
Aatrial House
The lecture efficiently and interestingly introduced the audience present to the philosophy of the Katowice-based studio and introduced both its best-known buildings and its conceptual or ongoing projects. Naturally, the first project presented was the Aatrial House, built between 2003 and 2006 on the outskirts of Opole. It is by far one of the best-known realizations of Robert Konieczny's team, nominated for the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award (2006), and winner of the House of the Year title of the World Architecture News portal. Thanks to this project, KWK Promes was noticed not only locally, but also globally - as they were included in Wallpaper's list of the one hundred and one most promising architects in the world! The idea for the project was basically forced on the designers by the plot itself with access located from the southwest. The architects, by sinking it into the ground and creating a convenient entrance to the center of the building (made possible precisely by the creation of a spacious atrium), obtained a building that is extremely elegant, contemporary, functional and, as if by default, "sculpted with movement." Noteworthy are the free openings to the outside with large glazing, which makes the Aatrial House the opposite of the previously known "classic" atrial development, closed to its surroundings, but open from the inner courtyard.
Safe House
Another building presented is also based on the mobility of elements, Safe House, built between 2004 and 2008 near Warsaw. This realization also received a nomination for the van der Rohe Award (2008 edition). A simple, cuboid block covered with a flat roof completely opens or closes to the surroundings thanks to huge sliding elements: part of the side walls can form a unity with a concrete fence, opening the house to the garden and allowing entrance from the street. Other mobile elements that completely change the perception of the building are huge shutters, 2.8 meters high by up to 3.5 meters wide, opening up to a 180-degree angle. What's more, on the south (garden) side, the house is enclosed or opened by a rolling wall measuring 14 meters by 6 meters; a fortress house or open house, as the case may be.
© KWK Promes
Konieczny's Ark
It is impossible for the architect presenting his projects not to mention his own house, located near the village of Brenna near Cieszyn, in a mountainous area. If the words of the owner are to be believed, it was only after two years of studying the project and the first day of starting construction that his actual, realized concept was created - poured onto paper in just.... a few days! Completed in 2015, the Ark is a cuboid covered both from above and finished from below with a symmetrical gabled roof, "twisted" away from the slope to allow the free flow of rainwater and snow.
© KWK Promes
Here, too, one can find mobile elements - protecting large strip windows with louvers or a raised footbridge connecting the house with the slope, which, like a medieval drawbridge, opens or closes access to the house itself. This project, too, was showered with an "avalanche" of awards and prizes. The big plus of this design is the (seemingly trivial and almost unrelated to the building itself) complete abandonment of any fencing of the land belonging to the house. Thanks to this simple and very "un-Polish" procedure, the house is more firmly inscribed in the surrounding beautiful landscape, while the name Ark gains almost the actual dimension of the word, grazing animals (horses, sheep) seek shelter under the ground line, broken like a straight ship's side on hot or rainy days.
Quadrant House
It was also very interesting to discuss the weather-responsive - regulating the intensity of sunlight with the help of a mobile terrace wing - Quadrant House (2013-2019) or the Sunlight Building, which goes further behind the idea and remains for now only at the conceptual stage.
© KWK Promes
Breakthroughs Dialogue Center
As a native Szczecinian, I was looking forward to the presentation of a project particularly close to my heart, and which luckily found its place both in Robert Konieczny's lecture and in the exhibition itself - Szczecin's Breakthroughs Dialogue Center (2009-2015). The object by KWK Promes, like a peculiar hybrid, combines theoretically two contradictory former functions of the place: a pre-war densely built-up quarter and a post-war spacious square. A definite part of the volume housing the museum function is located underground, while above it, on the roof of the building made of concrete slabs "blended" into the square with a gentle uplift, an intense life of the city takes place: photo exhibitions, film screenings, demonstrations, rallies. KWK Promes' solution fits perfectly into the existing context of the site, valorizing the small Gothic church of St. Peter and St. Paul and the iconic Philharmonic Hall building by studio Barozzi Veiga, located next door.
© KWK Promes
The architecture emerging from the KWK Promes studio is definitely worth exploring, and its presentation at La Galerie d'Architecture, despite its relatively small size, is worth a visit. In order to highlight the moving elements of the objects by the Silesian studio, which are so important conceptually, in harmony with their surroundings, a sizable portion of the objects are presented using lenticular stereograms, a technique for demonstrating three-dimensional images without the use of glasses. The vintage effect ensured, we feel like in the late 1980s, when "moving" three-dimensional postcards were fashionable, thanks to the morphing technique used - by changing the angle of view, you can see the moving parts of buildings.... moving architecture. So far, France is waiting for vaccinated visitors. Can a pretext for a quick Paris trip be an exhibition of a Polish architect.... Yes, it is worth it!
