Issue 1(31)/2012

DOI: 10.5277/ARCHITECTUS

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Articles

Krzysztof Hejmej - Sacrum under the blue sky

doi:10.5277/arc120101

In 2002 the 8th and last Apostolic journey to Poland of Pope John Paul II took place. For the arrival of the Pope almost 60 papal altars were built in different towns and different regions of Poland. Originally, the papal altar was supposed to be a temporary structure and with its highly expressive form it was to represent the papal pilgrimage motto as well as to create an exceptional and unique atmosphere of the meeting with the Pope by becoming a temple of ‘one day’.     The papal altar and sectors for pilgrims constitute a material temple under the firmament – the temple that was built for the particular ceremony with the participation of the Pope. On the basis of many scientific elaborations, it can be concluded that some design elements in the Christian temple as regards the layer of significance are characterised by features which are common for many religions. These are, among other things, the sacrificial altar on the platform – Sacred Mountain; a sacred area; sacrum and profanum zones – the interior and exterior of the temple; cosmos, the Universe – the temple’s vault; the axis of the world (axis mundi) – vertical elements of the temple, for example, a tower. Following M. Eliade’s considerations, we can claim that sacral architecture undertakes and develops cosmological symbolism. Experiencing a sacral space makes it possible for religious man to ‘establish his world’ in the place where sacrum is manifested in the space. Therefore, the Universe finds its symbolic equivalent in the temple’s vault and the earth is seen in the temple’s foundation as well as in its supporting structure – in columns and walls. The papal altar along with the surroundings which are formed by pilgrims and the open space construct a natural temple.     The papal altar was a result of compensation of numerous symbolic meanings and codes. Depending on the given place (region) and the awareness of the designer, investor and developer, it presented various attitudes towards expressing a symbol and religious meanings. In the regions in which tradition plays a particular role (e.g., Podhale, Pomerania, Upper Silesia) we could observe a high level of awareness of the participants in the process of creating the architectural work. The idea of the project was visible in the entirety of the structure: in its spatial composition, construction, detail and materials used. The papal altars were architectural works which communicated symbolic meanings in an expressive and emotional way – we must bear in mind that they were designed for this one exceptional day, i.e. a ceremonious meeting with the Pope.

Keywords:

    sacral-architecture

    papal-altars

    history-of-religion

    formal-symbolism

Małgorzata Milecka - The Cistercians large-scale water systems

doi:10.5277/arc120102

The Cistercian Order having in its rule soil cultivation as one of the main activities, developed in its congregation certain permanent principles regarding a choice of the monastery location and a manner in which it was arranged. Water constituted an inherent attribute of their layouts and it was used for economic and industrial purposes in a very skilful way. Throughout centuries, Cistercian streams and rivers, whose waters were captured in the form of canals, millstreams and ponds, constituted a source of water necessary to irrigate farmlands and gardens, to the proper work of ‘water crafts’ of mills, forges, breweries and fulleries.     The article presents water systems in the territories administered by two abbeys, i.e. Cîteaux and Mogiła in order to show solutions in the range of large scale water management used by Cistercians. Transformations of the landscape which were made in the presented areas and their contemporary results should constitute the basis for further research on the influence of man’s activities on the natural environment, whereas historical systems and water devices should be researched at length and protected as cultural heritage of the white monks.

Keywords:

    cistercians-abbey

    monastery

    water-system-natural-values

Hanna Golasz-Szołomicka - Tracery windows from the 14th century in Silesia

doi:10.5277/arc120103

In the 14th century churches had high windows with sophisticated and multifaceted tracery. They constitute an extension of the 13th-century composition but with more complex systems. In the 14th century new elements appeared such as fish bladders, an escutcheon (heraldry) form as well as elaborate multi-leaf ornaments and rotating systems. Tracery can be divided into central, central extended and multilevel.     In the central and central extended systems in the sub-arch there were the following elements: a circle, a square, a triangle filled with multi-leaf ornaments, fish bladders, radial and rotating system elements. Multilevel tracery consisted of circles, triangles, squares filled with multi-leaf ornaments arranged in tiers. In the multilevel concentric composition elements in the concentric system were arranged around the central ogive.

Keywords:

    silesian-churches-from-the-14th-century

    layout-of-windows-in-elevations

    tracery-with-central-patterns

    extended-central-patterns

    pattern-with-several-levels

Bożena Grzegorczyk - The operations of building companies in Wrocław in the 2nd half of the 19th century

doi:10.5277/arc120104

One of the problems of Wrocław around 1850 – which in fact is rarely noticed by researchers – due to the fact that other issues are most often studied – is the issue of planned housing development and building societies closely connected with it which were established in those times. In 1840 there was an economic revival along with a population growth and decisions taken by the members of the city government at that time resulted in the construction boom. There was an increased demand for building plots whose values were still growing. It could be observed that there appeared a necessity to build not only tenement houses for rich Wroclaw inhabitants, but there was also a need to erect cheaper houses for poorer inhabitants of the town.     It is very characteristic that patterns were derived from English experiences and ‘The Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes’ that was established in London in 1844 was presented as an example of a newly understood construction organisation. However, the English Society, similarly to the Amsterdam society called ‘Vereeniging ten Behoven der Arbeiderklasse’, conducted half-charity business, whereas in the territory of Wroclaw the business was carried out in two ways, namely, two groups of societies with different goals appeared. Societies with a definitely commercial character belonged to the first group and they were aimed at gaining building territories, dividing them into building plots and then selling them (for example, Wroclaw Construction Society – 1858, Wroclaw Construction Bank – 1871). It is worth emphasising that some societies did not only deal with selling new plots of land but they also employed architects who designed buildings, constructed them and then sold to private persons or institutions (e.g. Maciejowe Field – Construction Limited Partnership Society – 1869, Silesian Society of Real Estate Trade – 1872). The other group consisted of societies which conducted business on the basis of a cooperative, however, differently than in England or Netherlands, i.e. they were established on the initiative of persons who were united by a necessity to get a relatively cheap flat  (e.g. Wroclaw Savings and Construction Cooperative – 1868).     The activity of the abovementioned companies, which was outlined in the article, clearly demonstrates not only constant competition but also a great contribution of the discussed institutions in the process of co-creating the planned city development.

Keywords:

    architecture-19th

    social-housing

    building-companies

    wrocław

Elżbieta Trocka-Leszczyńska, Agnieszka Tomaszewicz - The urban transformations of the health resort in Lądek Zdrój before 1945

doi:10.5277/arc120105

Lądek-Zdrój, the oldest Kłodzko spa, today consists of two parts, i.e. a historical town situated on the Biała Lądecka River bank and a spa situated on both sides of the river, which has a free park system with softly arranged roads adjusted to the natural environment with spa development dispersed in the surrounding green areas. The municipal part of Lądek Zdrój was granted the town charter in the 2nd half of the 13th century. At a similar time, at the foot of Świętojerskie Hill thermal springs were discovered near which a spa started to develop. At the end of the 16th century the functional system of the spa was already outlined and an apparently accidental arrangement of buildings, which was adapted to the natural form of the terrain, provided its normal functioning. After discovering next thermal springs called Fryderyk and Maria, in the second half of the 17th century the so called Nowy Zdrój (New Bath) was set up which was later changed into Maria’s Bath. A spatial arrangement of the spa development, which was a result of the planned and one-time construction action, is regarded as the earliest solution of this type that was realised in Silesia.     The minister of Silesia, Count von Hoym contributed to the further development of the spa in the middle of the 18th century. He was, inter alia, an initiator of land development  between baths where a spa house was built and the English park was established. In the 19th century the spa was still beautified and developed; the authorities of Lądek aimed at getting and integrating further lands which were adjacent to the thermal springs where parks were established and residential buildings were located. The present spatial layout of the spa is to a large extent a result of reorganisation of the area around Maria Bath that was conducted in the 1930s. The article presents in detail the particular stages of the history of urban transformations of the spa part of Lądek Zdrój.

Keywords:

    silesia

    lądek-zdrój

    health-resort

    urban-development

Monika Ewa Adamska - The layout of the municipal cemetery in Opole Półwieś in Gustav Allinger’s projects

doi:10.5277/arc120106

Gustav Allinger, the author of the municipal cemetery design in Opole Półwieś significantly contributed to the development of garden and urban green areas architecture in the 20th-century Germany. He was born in 1891 in Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, died in Bonn in 1974, at the age of 83.     Designing and organisational talents of Gustav Allinger were already revealed in the 1920s during preparations and realisations of garden exhibitions. Designs of gardens constitute a significant part in Allinger’s professional achievements illustrating the development of his style and accompanying him at all stages of his professional career. Designs of gardens from 1920s and 1930s are based on geometrical divisions, while designs from the 1940s and 1950s constitute layouts with a less formal and freer character. Another topic which was also tackled by designers was connected with development of the area for future public utility facilities (schools, universities, spas and hospitals) as well as for companies and residential complexes.     In the years 1928–1932 Gustav Allinger acted as director of The Office of Urban Green Areas (Stadtgartendirektor) in Zabrze (Hindenburg) and took part in the work on regulatory plans and designs of new housing estates of the town. Urban cemetery layouts are presented as a preserved group of several designs elaborated in the years 1914–1943 in the territory of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and present Poland (Bolesławiec, Elbląg, Gdynia and Opole). The new municipal cemetery layout in Opole Półwieś, which was carried out partly, constitutes an elongated geometrical arrangement based on straight lines and concentric arcs. The cemetery was officially opened in 1931.     The cemetery was extended in the years 1970s and 1980s and its further extension took place in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2012 the last phase of its development is to be completed.

Keywords:

    20th-century-landscape-architecture

    cemetery

    opole

    gustav-allinger

Justyna Kleszcz - The route of wooden churches in Olesno County – a sketch

doi:10.5277/arc120107

A complex of wooden churches in Olesno district constitutes a rich collection of various types of wooden Silesian architecture. Due to its specific location on the border of several districts and geographical regions, it is a rich source of knowledge about transformations and influences of various building techniques and traditions.     The study deals with historical and geographical conditions underlying the process of erecting a group of Opole churches. Further considerations are based upon an analysis of the thematic literature comprising origins of an interest in the tradition of wooden Silesian architecture dating back to the mid-19th century on the German territories. In its further parts, the article tackles issues of history and architecture as well as the interior decor of the structures situated in the area of the district. The study also includes these buildings which were destroyed during the last twenty years due to destructive activity of man. Their history illustrates the validity of all the restoring and protective measures which were taken in the recent years in order to save the still existing monuments.     There is an annex to the study in the form of a list of monuments which exemplify the changes that occurred in the post war period illustrating territorial changes of Olesno district along with a slow process of destroying the wooden architecture of this region. Additional information is an extract from the Opole district monument register showing what sort of actions were taken just after the war aimed at protecting the heritage of the regained territories.

Keywords:

    wooden-ecclesiastical-architecture

    protection-of-historic-monuments

Tomasz Kruszewski - The symbolic motifs in contemporary architecture of libraries – most frequent trends

doi:10.5277/arc120108

The article deals with an issue of leitmotifs used in architecture of libraries of the last three decades. Among them there are trends inspired by ecology, simplicity, ethnicity and elasticity and also – which may be perceived as a slightly archaic inspiration – by religion. Their choice results from fashions created by the western world and a post-modern philosophy. Both of these factors contribute to creating an image of a modern library isolated from its tradition and consequently rejecting classical ideological and symbolic solutions constituting its former cultural role.

Keywords:

    contemporary-libraries

    architecture-of-libraries

    symbols

    semiotics-of-architecture

Michał Dębek - Are assessment and emotions connected with a building conditioned by its external appearance? Attitudes towards formally differentiated architectural objects

doi:10.5277/arc120109

The article tackles psychological aspects of reception of architectural structures and significant conditions of relations man-architecture. The author is interested in assessments, emotional attitudes and declarations of behaviours towards structures that differ in appearance. The study includes a discussion of a part of research project ‘Conditions of attitudes towards architectural structures’ which was carried out by the author in the years 2007–2010. A special emphasis was placed on a synthetic discussion of a psychological basis for the perception of structures and the notion of declared attitudes towards them. Some key elements of the author’s own scheme structuralising hypothetical determinants of attitudes towards architectural structures were presented. An essential part of the article constitutes a presentation and discussion of the results of the author’s research on attitudes towards the particular architectural structures. In the final part an attempt is made to answer the following question: ‘Do such features of appearance as shape, colour and structural diversity play a decisive role in the assessment of an architectural structure?’.

Keywords:

    attitudes-towards-objects

    assessment-of-architectural-objects

    evaluation-of-buildings

    environmental-psychology

    perception-of-architecture

    aesthetical-preferences

Michał Pelczarski, Zdzisław Pelczarski - EURO 2012 Enterprise – attempt at assessing the achieved architectural and structural effects

doi:10.5277/arc120110

The purpose of this article is to answer the following question: are these spectacular and unquestionable achievements accompanied by equal successes in the field of architectural and constructional qualities? Did quick and protective decisions concerning the choice of foreign designers influence unification of solutions which – instead of providing unique offers with architectural icon features – became similar to many other famous constructions in the world?     As a solution worth imitating, a Portuguese model was presented according to which, thanks to adopting the relevant laws by the parliament, the majority of new stadiums were designed by native architects and only at the execution phase, when there was a need for advanced technologies and experience in building this sort of structures, were foreign companies employed. Unfortunately, Poland did not follow this positive example and did not oppose globalisation phenomena, the monopoly of a few big specialist design companies and the resultant unification of stadium architecture.

Keywords:

    polish-stadiums-for-euro-2012

    stadium-roof-structures

    stadium-façades

Joanna Krajewska - Dialectics of locality and globality of contemporary architecture

doi:10.5277/arc120111

Modern architecture oscillates between local and globalist tendencies. Dynamism of changes in the postmodern époque results in the fact that it is difficult to assess this phenomenon unambiguously, therefore it is suggested that it should be considered in the spirit of negative dialectics.     The 20th century brought new technologies and the world began to ‘shrink’. The existing networks of global relationships did not allow any civilisation to remain indifferent to the growing level of knowledge and the development of technology. Modernisation, starting from the West, covered the whole world. Compression of time and space as well as the appearance of virtual reality changed the meaning of the real ‘place’. New construction materials and a growth of constructional possibilities as well as a new philosophy of architecture, i.e. modernism provided the basis for developing one language of modern architecture within the range of which a great freedom of designing appeared. The identity of architecture, which was understood as one of the manifestations of culture, started to undergo a crisis in some regions of the world. Hence, modern man stood in the face of an uncertain assessment of his identity in relation to the surrounding urban space. Meanwhile, according to specialists, the more expansive globalisation, the stronger need to emphasise one’s own culture. Therefore, it is worth considering which languages architecture of the future shall speak to us.

Keywords:

    architecture

    identity

    globalisation

Wojciech Januszewski - Between Europe and the East – draft on architectural landscape of Bucharest

doi:10.5277/arc120112

Bucharest – the capital city and the most important center of industry and services in Romania – is in many respects an exceptional city compared to other Central European metropolises. The article presents an outline of the spatial layer structure of the town which is formed by the particular stylistic groups such as a native style, ‘small Paris’, modernism, socialist realism and modern times.

Keywords:

    bucharest

    urban-space

    modernism

Barbara Misztal - Dynamic parameters of the free vibrations of various wood species

doi:10.5277/arc120113

This paper describes the dynamic testing of beams made of two wood species: oak tree and pine tree. The testing was conducted on both dry and wet models. For formal reasons, this paper depicts the testing of models in the air-dried state of oak and pine wood.     The article presents a method of choosing a type of wood for constructing wooden structures on the basis of the normal mode frequency and damping of vibrations. The application of normal mode measurements for determining mechanical properties of elements was suggested.

Keywords:

    wood

    wooden-constructions

Izabela Cichońska, Jacek Kotz, Roman Czajka - Intrigue of Infinity on the Border of Two Worlds on the basis of ‘The Street of Crocodiles’ by Bruno Schulz, i.e. a metaphor of Bruno Schulz’s prose in Izabela Cichońska’s concept

doi:10.5277/arc120114

The article presents a dissertation by Izabela Cichońska, a student of the Faculty of Architecture of Wroclaw University of Technology. The dissertation was written under the scientific supervision of Roman Czajka PhD, Arch. and defended in 2010. This dissertation is an architectural metaphor of ‘The Street of Crocodiles’ by Bruno Schulz, which was set in the reality of contemporary Drohobych.

Keywords:

    metaphor-of-bruno-schulzs-prose

Adam Stafiniak - The complex of monastic buildings with St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church in Jaroszówka

doi:10.5277/arc120115

A designing problem of the monastery can be generally described as a difficulty in creating the space of sacrum, i.e. the space which facilitates concentration and which has a tranquilizing influence on the user. The analysis of the existing solutions, although it is helpful in understanding the phenomenon, does not constitute the primary source of knowledge. A greater emphasis should be placed on man, man’s psyche, and various ways of exploring and feeling the space.

Keywords:

    monastery

    cloister

    sacral-architecture

    orthodoxy

    sacrum

    orthodox-theology

Karolina Jaklewicz - WUWA by Maria Kiesner

doi:10.5277/arc120116

A series of paintings Re: WUWA constitutes a dialogue of the young generation with the classic of modernism. The author, a Warsaw artist Maria Kiesner, referred to the best sources that have ever existed in Wrocław, i.e. the structures of Residential Exhibition from 1929. The idea of this series is to ‘rediscover’ a modernistic thought, to draw attention to the richness of Wroclaw cultural heritage and to come back to good models. Re: WUWA is the homage paid to innovative solutions from the past. As opposed to the previous paintings, in which monumental depictions of architecture dominated, the Wrocław series is characterised by the intimate atmosphere of the composition. From an objective observer’s and documentary writer’s view, Kiesner moves on towards a subjective relation with architecture. A distance disappears. Wide panoramas give way to portraits of houses. Kiesner observes buildings at close range, presents fragments of forms, peers inside. On the basis of archival photographs she composes forgotten views of WUWA Estate, pays homage to innovative architectural solutions and brings to mind the authors of the design.

Keywords:

    wuwa

    painting

    kiesner