Hits and kits of 2024
The year 2024 was full of high-profile architectural events - both annoying and pride-inducing. We had many interesting realizations in our country, and every now and then we also heard about more international awards for Polish architects. The past year also saw elections to the SARP's General Board and local authorities.
For me, 2024 is a year of change. I completed a five-year term on the board of the Katowice branch of SARP, as well as a seven-year term as curator of the "Masters of Architecture" series . This, in turn, has created space for completely new activities, such as a series of interviews with SARP Honorary Award winners, which I conduct in the pages of Architektura & Business monthly. For me, these conversations are extremely inspiring, and at the same time allow me to look at the hits and kits of contemporary Polish architecture through the eyes of outstanding designers. Below, however, is my subjective list of Hits and Kits 2024.
HIT
I consider the success of Robert Konieczny's KWK Promes studio to be an absolute hit, as the second Polish office in history to make it to the final five of the Mies van der Rohe Award, the most prestigious award for architects in Europe. The international jury appreciated the building of the PLATO Contemporary Art Gallery in Ostrava, created as a result of a competition for the reconstruction of a historic slaughterhouse. KWK Promes thus joined BBGK Architects, who in 2017 made it to the final round for their design of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw.
Also worth mentioning is the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2024 for the topoScape and Archigrest studios for the "Storm" Action Park at the Warsaw Uprising Mound, as well as the two Polish finalists of the World Architecture Festival 2024, namely the Tremend studio(Metropolitan Railway Station in Lublin) and TKHolding Truszczyński & Kobierzewski(Water Park "Water Factory" in Szczecin).
KIT
The kit of 2024 was the suspension of projects implemented as a result of competitions decided under the previous government. A competition is by definition a public pledge, and practice shows that when the authorities of a country or city change, all the projects of the predecessors are thrown in the trash. I feel most sorry for the competition for the reconstruction of the Cracovia Hotel to function as the Museum of Design and Architecture in Krakow (first prize for the Lewicki Łatak Design Bureau). I myself competed in this competition and received an honorable mention, developing the project in cooperation with Justyna Boduch Atelier, Studio Woodroffe Papa and Gómez Platero.
A few years ago, the Ministry of Culture bought back the deteriorating Cracovia Hotel building from a developer who wanted to demolish it and build a housing development in its place. Then more public money was spent on organizing the competition and paying prizes to the winners. Today, it is unclear what future awaits the icon of Krakow's modernism. As I write this, there are reports that we are back to the public consultation stage. And the building is standing, deteriorating and generating ever higher maintenance costs*.
KIT
A similar kind of putty is the Silesian Park's efforts to demolish other icons of modernism, namely the Parkowa Restaurant (designed by Zbigniew Rzepecki, 1962) and the Hat Hall (designed by Jerzy Gottfried, 1968). Both buildings are an integral part of the park's main urban axis. Big kudos to architect Maciej Franta, who publicized the topic and led to the inclusion of the Parkowa restaurant in the register of monuments. However, the authorities of the Silesian Park are not letting up and have appealed the decision to the Ministry of Culture.
HIT/KIT
A hit and a putty in one were last year's elections in the Association of Polish Architects. I make no secret of the fact that I pinned high hopes on the election of Marek Chrobak as president of the Board of Directors. I followed his activities when he was still president of the Rzeszow Branch. At that time he managed to gather around SARP a large group of young architects, full of energy for action. To this day they still do a great job of integrating the Subcarpathian community, organizing numerous meetings or trips. I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for a similar opening to the young within the General Board and other local branches.
On the other hand, I consider as putty the extremely low turnout in elections to local SARP authorities, such as in my Katowice. Despite the fact that our branch has more than two hundred members, fewer than fifty came to the election. Now I hear from these absent architects that SARP should do this or that. In my opinion, if we have any demands on SARP and want to speak out on the subject, we should come to the elections at least once every four years and support those who realistically want to do something for the environment.
HIT
For the first time in twenty-five years, the SARP Honorary Award went to Silesia! According to statistics, almost 50 percent of international awards given to Polish architects go to offices that come from Silesia. So the math shows that the SARP Honorary Award should go here on average every two years. There are plenty of candidates. Robert Konieczny, Joanna and Wojciech Małecki, Tomasz Studniarek and Małgorzata Pilinkiewicz, Tomasz Konior, Marlena Wolnik, as well as many other architects whom I am no longer naming here. Meanwhile, we had to wait as long as a quarter of a century for the SARP Honorary Award. I am very happy that it went to Przemo Łukasik and Łukasz Zagała, who, together with the Medusa Group team, are able to create architecture and design from absolutely unobvious materials. It is also worth noting their role in promoting Silesia and the local heritage. Let's hope the next SARP Honorary Award comes to our region sooner than in another quarter century.
HIT
On my subjective list of hits of 2024 could not miss the book "Koszykowa 55", whose author is Radoslaw Gajda. For many years, together with Natalia Szczesniak, he has been running the YouTub channel "Architecture is a Good Idea", thanks to which hundreds of thousands of people completely unrelated to the industry have become interested in architecture. This time he decided to try something completely new and not obvious. "Koszykowa 55" is a detective story set in the early 21st century at the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. In addition to an engaging plot, valuable ideas about urban space are woven into the content of the book. An example of this is the dialogue between two architecture students who, while trying to solve the mystery of "who killed", seamlessly transition to a conversation about the superiority of architectural competitions over tenders. I recommend this book especially to WAPW graduates.
HIT
I started my list with Robert Konieczny and will end with him. This year saw the publication of a monograph on the KWK Promes studio, authored by the famous architecture critic Philip Jodidio. I remember hunting for Jodidio's books in the "Architecture Now" series at Empik in my student days. At that time, it was in vain to look for Polish realizations in them. This makes it all the more gratifying that Jodidio, known for his monographs on architects such as Santiago Calatrava, Tadao Ando and Álvaro Siza, has now turned his attention to a Polish studio from Katowice. The book is available in architectural bookstores around the world, and a Polish language version was also published at the end of 2024.
* As a result of public consultations, it turns out that money for the Lewicki Łatak Office project is to be found after all. I look forward to a happy ending to this matter.
Wojciech Fudala
more: A&B 1/2025 - Wood in architecture,
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