Wojciech Krawczuk was re-elected president of the Poznań branch of SARP. During the general program-reporting and election meeting, he and the outgoing Board of Directors were given a vote of approval. There were several changes in the composition of the Board.
The difficult term, marked by pandemonium, of the Board of Directors of the Poznan branch of the Association of Polish Architects, which President Wojciech Krawczuk chaired for more than four years (elections were held at the end of 2019), is now a thing of the past. After Friday's (March 15, 2024) general meeting, he was re-elected to the position he has held so far. No challenger ran in the election.
Krawczuk, born in 1973 and a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at Poznan University of Technology, has been co-owner of the Poznan-based Front Architects studio for more than two decades. Since 2015, he has also been active in the Municipal Urban Planning and Architecture Commission. What has the Poznań office managed to do under his leadership over the past four years?
award and homebuilders
A very important novelty was the launch of the annual competition for the Architectural Award of the Wielkopolska Region. The idea, which was conceived back in the previous term under chairman Piotr Kostka, came to fruition for the first time in 2020. Thanks to this, good realizations and practices from the entire region can finally be promoted . Previously, only the authors of Poznan projects awarded in the J.B. competition , organized since 1998, were recognized. Quadro ( co-organized by SARP).
Another novelty was the popular video series Domokrążcy (also available on youtube), started in 2020, which is still part of the annual modernist architecture festival Nowy Plan co-organized by SARP (both events are arranged jointly with the Open Center initiative). The Domokrążcy series has already produced nearly thirty films showing very different ways of living in Poznań, other Polish cities, as well as Brno and Berlin (several films in cooperation with the Wrocław branch of SARP). The festival itself has dealt in recent years with leisure, industrial and residential architecture, among others.
The annual international Mood for Wood workshop, led by Magda Wypusz, has also thrived during this time. This endeavor, which had its twelfth edition last year , saw the creation of many practical spatial forms made of wood scattered throughout Poznań. The workshop also had its unveiling in Cieszyn.
built and dug up
All the while, Poznan SARP also arranged a series of architectural walks and guided tours of buildings as part of the Built series. During these events, which enjoyed considerable attendance, both places and buildings newly put into use were shown, as well as those whose history, quality or uniqueness was worth recalling and bringing closer.
During the last term, a series of screenings of films about architecture called Projector was also created and developed. During the pandemic, the lectures and film screenings were made available online. After the lockdown, arranging lectures, meetings and events returned to the SARP headquarters, but it was still difficult, because in the spring of 2022 the renovation of the Old Market, where the SARP headquarters is located, began in earnest.
The headquarters of the Poznań branch of SARP at 56 Old Market Square (middle, tallest tenement)
photo: Jakub Głaz
Attendance was not helped by the chaos at the construction site, mud, darkness and difficulties in accessing the downtown area - also ditched due to the reconstruction of the main streets (in part, the work is still going on, but all streetcars are running, the Market is almost overhauled).
Finally, the SARP board succeeded in getting the tenant of the restaurant on the first floor of the tenement the Association occupies changed. The premises were taken over by the owner of the popular Dragon Social Club on Zamkowa Street. Since then, its interiors (under the name SARP Social Club) have been primarily a place for meetings of the architectural community, lectures, film screenings and social events.
It is worth mentioning at this point that Poznań SARP harmoniously cooperates with the Wielkopolska Regional Chamber of Architects. Among other things, the Chamber supports the organization of the NAWW competition, while SARP supports the Design and Architecture Forum held annually by the Chamber and the MTP Group during Budma.
A new Board of Directors was also elected on Friday . Here there were several changes, and the number of members decreased from eleven to eight. The Board currently includes Michał Bekas, Kinga Grzybowska, Marcin Kościuch, Roderyk Milik, Inga Rolek, Mikołaj Stępień, Adam Wierciński and Borys Wrzeszcz. The presidium will be established at the first board meeting.
We will publish an interview with the new-old president soon.
