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ABSTRACT
In the 1970s and 1980 architects and planners in socialist Poland increasingly attempted to defy the inflexible structure of the state-operated construction industry and modify the by-now ubiquitous system-built mass housing blocks. These efforts generated housing complexes that took up postmodern principles—visually harmonic, legible, and at the same time meaningful urban spaces modelled after historical typologies. On the basis of archival documents, contemporaneous publications, and interviews with the protagonists this article analyses three examples: Radogoszcz-East in Łódź (1979–1989, designed by Jakub Wujek, Zdzisław Lipski, and Andrzej Owczarek), Różany Potok in Poznań (1978–2010s, designed by Marian Fikus and Jerzy Gurawski) and the Na Skarpie Scheme in Kraków-Nowa Huta (1987–95, designed by Romuald Loegler, Wojciech Dobrzański, Ewa Fitzke, and Michał Szymanowski). The article argues that these housing complexes first evolved from late modernist ideas, in particular structuralist currents, and only at a later stage absorbed postmodern theory from both domestic and international sources. It also points to individual architects and planners as the driving forces in the struggle between artistic innovation and systemic inertia, who were able to take advantage of unexpected latitude within the declining socialist regime to carry out their proposals.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Florian Urban is a Professor of Architectural History and Head of History of Architectural/Urban Studies (HAUS) at the Glasgow School of Art. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Berlin, an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA and a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from MIT. He is the author of Neo-historical East Berlin - Architecture and Urban Design in the German Democratic Republic 1970-1990 (Ashgate, 2009), Tower and Slab - Histories of Global Mass Housing (Routledge, 2012) and The New Tenement - Residences in the Inner City since 1970 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018). In 2018-19, he was a visiting researcher at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Notes
1 Postmodernism in this context is very broadly defined, following, for example Klotz, History of Postmodern Architecture or Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism.
2 See for example Basista, Betonowe Dziedzictwo; Klein and Gzowska, Postmodernizm polski; Ciarkowski, Odcienie szarości; Piątek, “Bardzo długa transformacja”; the special number “Architektura Postmodernizmu” of Autoportret (2018) with contributions from Aleksandra Stępień-Dąbrowska, Piotr Winskowski, Łukasz Wojciechowski and others. See also Stanek, Postmodernizm jest prawie w porządku; Cymer, Architektura w Polsce; or Klein and Gzowska, “Late Socialist Postmodernism and Socialist Realism.”
3 For two of the few studies on postmodern panel buildings see Ciarkowski, “Postmodernizm a prefabrykacja” and the insightful book Ciarkowski, Miastoprojektanci, particularly the chapter on Pracownia no. 3, 127–52. On Na Skarpie see also Jędruch, “Osiedle Centrum E.”
4 Basista, Betonowe Dziedzictwo, 78–9; see also Sergot, “‘Fabryki domów’.”
5 Grala, Reformy gospodarcze w PRL, in particular 125–83. See also Porter-Szücs, Poland in the Modern World, 300–20.
6 For a discussion of the Party position in the 1980s see Ciarkowski, Odcienie szarości, 83, 127–39.
7 Sergot, “‘Fabryki domów’,” 36.
8 Grundsätze für die sozialistische Entwicklung von Städtebau und Architektur in der DDR, 238; see also Urban, New Tenement, 76–8.
9 Meuser and Zadorin, Prefabrication in the USSR 1955–1991.
10 Wiol [author abbreviation] “Pogrzeb prof. Wujka.”
11 Lipski and Wujek, “Doświadczeia z projektowania,” 25.
12 Andrzej Owczarek, conversation with the author, Łódź, 14 August 2018.
13 On control and reorganisation of construction companies in socialist Poland, particularly cooperative construction, see Basista, Betonowe Dziedzictwo, 16–7.
14 Plan for Radogoszcz-East, dated 1986, 2.
15 Ciarkowski, Odcienie szarości, 83–7.
16 Materials of the plenary meeting of the Łódź Committee of the PZPR, 1980.
17 Andrzej Owczarek, conversation with the author, Łódź, 13 September 2018. See also Kulik, Niewiadomski.
18 Owczarek, “Jakub Wujek,” 6–15.
19 Fuchs, Jakub Wujek, 105–8.
20 See for example Greger et al., Projekty 1965–72.
21 Lipski and Wujek, “Doświadczenia z projektowania”, 35; Andrzej Owczarek, conversation with the author, Łódź, 14 August 2018.
22 Wujek, “Moderne und Postmoderne,” 1034–5.
23 Urban, New Tenement, 197–256.
24 For an analysis of structuralist influences on this development see also Ciarkowski, Miastoprojektanci, 136–43 and Owczarek, “Jakub Wujek,” 12–3.
25 Greger et al., Projekty 1965–72, 12.
26 Miastoprojekt Łódź [Andrzej Owczarek and others], Katalog otwarty, 1.0.
27 On the international repercussion of structuralist housing schemes see for example de Wit, “Geordende Kasbah,” 1474. See also Lüchinger, “Strukturalismus—eine neue Strömung in der Architektur,” 5–9.
28 Andrzej Owczarek, conversation with the author, Łódź, 13 September 2018.
29 Ibid.; Greger et al., Projekty 1965–72.
30 Jakub Wujek, “Moderne und Postmoderne,” 1034–5.
31 Lipski and Wujek, “Doświadczenia z projektowania,” 32.
32 Ibid., 28–30.
33 Ibid., 22.
34 Andrzej Owczarek, conversation with the author, Łódź, 13 September 2018.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Jakub Wujek, “Rozmowa,” 114–16.
38 Lipski and Wujek, “Doświadczenia z projektowania,” 34.
39 Ibid., 34–5. In the publication the plans seem to be mismatched to the year dates, as the year dates are out of order, and in addition do not correspond to the construction phases visible in the plans and the adjacent texts. My interpretation is based on a corrected attribution, that is, I re-ordered the plans and re-attributed the year dates, and matched them with the different construction phases.
40 Lipski and Wujek, “Doświadczenia z projektowania,” 38–40.
41 Jakub Wujek, “Rozmowa,” 116.
42 Jakub Wujek, “Pięćdziesiąt lat póżniej,” 22.
43 Jakub Wujek, Mity i utopie, in particular, 7–8. The book was first published in chapters in Architektura n. 1–4 (1983).
44 Wujek, “Neoromantyczne fascynacje w architekturze,” 5.
45 Fikus and Gurawski, Projekt nowego uniwersytetu; Fikus and Gurawski, “Przestrzenno-funkcjonalny element integrujący,” 32–6.
46 Ibid.
47 Marian Fikus, conversation with the author, Poznań, 24 September 2018.
48 Ibid.
49 Hansen, “Forma otwarta w architekturze”; Hansen, Ku formie otwartej.
50 Fikus and Gurawski, “Przestrzenno-funkcjonalny element integrujący,” 34.
51 Fikus, Przestrzeń w zapisach architekta, 128–34.
52 Gurawski, “Rozmowa,” 254–60; Marian Fikus, conversation with the author, Poznań, 24 September 2018.
53 Marian Fikus, conversation with the author, Poznań, 24 September 2018.
54 Grala, Reformy gospodarcze w PRL, 125–83.
55 Romuald Loegler, conversation with the author, Kraków, 1 September 2018.
56 Ibid.; see also Maciej Miłobędzki, “Warszawscy pejsażiści, Krakówscy geometrzy,” 89.
57 Romuald Loegler, conversation with the author, Kraków, 1 September 2018.
58 Styrna-Bartkowicz, Loegler. Synopsis, 86–9 and 206–7.
59 Stanek, Postmodernizm jest prawie w porządku; Stanek, “Miastoprojekt goes abroad.”
60 Loegler, 2011, quoted in Stanek, Postmodernizm jest prawie w porządku, 41.
61 Loegler, “Na Skarpie – Zespół Mieszkaniowy,” 7.
62 Romuald Loegler, conversation with the author, Kraków, 1 September 2018.
63 “Konkurs SARP,” 53.
64 Romuald Loegler, “Na Skarpie – Zespół Mieszkaniowy”.
65 Romuald Loegler, conversation with the author, Kraków, 1 September 2018.
66 Ibid.
67 Loegler, 1989, plans “Na Skarpie – Willa Miejska.”
68 Loegler and Szczepanik-Dzikowski “Miasto czy Osiedle?,” 57–9. For similar ideas see also Loegler, “Nowy klasycyzm czy geometryczny romantyzm,” 65–6.