Issue 1(37)/2014

DOI: 10.5277/ARCHITECTUS

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Articles

Ann Evans - Idea of sustainability and its chosen manifestations

doi:10.5277/arc140101

The article presents the current views on the origins of the abbey which was built in the vicinity of Grosbot village. The fi rst name of the abbey, i.e. Fontus Vivus (Living Source or Spring) was connected with its location near springs. It is believed that since about 975 at that place there was a seat of Benedictines or Augustinians, however, there are no documents which would prove this fact. On the other hand, the existence of settlements in this area might be indicated by the 10th and 11th-century pottery shards discovered by archaeologists. It is not know exactly when the seat in Fontus Vivus was given to Cistercians. Nowadays, it is believed that it took place in 1142 or 1147 when the Cistercian abbey in Obazine took over the lands near the springs. Then the name of the place was changed to Grosbot. However, there are still many doubts with regard to origins of the abbey. Theyrequire an explanation.

Keywords:

    notre-dame-de-grosbot

    abbey

    cistercians

    origins

Hanna Kozaczewska-Golasz - Opole – the Cathedral of Finding of the Holy Cross

doi:10.5277/arc140102

The church first mentioned in 1223 was a three-nave building to which two western towers were added in the third quarter of the 13th century. The next stage constituted the reconstruction of the nave body. It is connected with a mention from 1295 about the act of founding the church by Prince Bolko I. The church performed a collegiate function and in the first half of the 14th century it was given a basilica system with a long presbytery closed by a polygon. After a fire in 1415 the church reconstruction started – the nave body walls were made higher up to a hall system. The interior received new pillars with pilasters and pilasters at longitudinal walls. Probably, a one-nave presbytery was left.     Undoubtedly, in the second half of the 15th century, the one-nave presbytery was reconstructed and changed into a three-nave hall system presbytery. The pillars and the presbytery interior segmentation constituted a continuation of the nave body forms. The church was given a long three-nave hall system with five bays and a polygonal top of the nave and each aisle. Probably it was not until the mid-16th century that vaults were added, which were renovated in the 17th and mid-19th century. Throughout the whole period on the western side there were two old towers, which were undoubtedly heightened. In the 16th century three chapels were erected as well as a gallery.     The church was given its final appearance in the 19th century, i.e. in 1856 the vaults, roof and buttresses were repaired and in 1899 the western towers were made higher. All the external walls were faced then, which significantly changed the appearance of the building.

Keywords:

    middle-ages

    silesia

    church

Aleksander Serafin - Architecture towards the abstract art of the 20th century

doi:10.5277/arc140103

Resignation of the classical canons of aesthetics caused that art and thereby architecture follow the new rules. Independently of the different existing trends in art, two mainstreams are featured clearly: the organic and the geometrical. It is the reason why architecture oscillates between both of the infl uences. Because of those infl uences, abstract art found its interpretation in the architectural form. It is also worth emphasing the important role of expressionism against the background of changeable architecture.

Keywords:

    architecture

    art

    abstraction

    avant-garde

    expressionism

Agnieszka Lisowska - Reformed Real Gymnasium building in Milicz

doi:10.5277/arc140104

A new school building came into existence in the years 1927–1929 for the newly created Real Reformed Gymnasium. This facility was the response to the high demand of the Milicz community for a high school ending with school leaving exams. Popularly called “Ostlandschule”, it was supposed to be a model German school. The carefully designed building was to enable comprehensive education and development of youth, supporting the idea through its architecture as well. The magnifi cent monumental building came into being in a residential area away from the old town centre. Due to its corner setting and interesting mass it perfectly fits the adjacent residential development. At the same time its simple modernist form, long rectangular windows and appropriate highlighting of the entrances make it outstanding. The architect Hans Spitzner thoroughly visualized the functional layout. Each area: sports and recreation, school and residential were separated one from another. The main building housed facilities for the Sciences, the side wing contained other classrooms and the administration. The gymnasium and assembly hall constitutes a self-sufficient segment open to residents after classes. The head teacher’s house, surrounded by a garden was another separate element. The Reformed Real Gymnasium in Milicz was an exceptional school and the building itself has been a precious architectural gem not only of Milicz but of the entire region.

Keywords:

    milicz

    architecture-of-school-buildings

    modernism

Ewa Święcka - The notion of authenticity and wall painting

doi:10.5277/arc140105

Wall paintings provide a special bridge between architecture and movable artworks. In reference to these three types of structures a separate method of protection and conservation has been developed. Although there are many common points, the different character of the individual groups requires a special approach and interpretation. This also regards the issue of authenticity. The key problem in this respect includes transfers of wall paintings displayed in galleries as easel paintings.

Keywords:

    authenticity

    wall-painting

    conservation

    transfers

Jerzy Olek - To see the ideal, or infinities of lines

doi:10.5277/arc140106

A line happens to be a sign. More frequently, however, it is a promise or an error, sometimes a fragment, a random occurrence, incomplete Beginning, an imprint or defilement. It does not direct to the Source, it only comes out of it. It presages the sense of its own existence, at the same time vio lating it and suggesting that it has an assigned pre-sense, it clothes an expected meaning in beyond-sense. It obstinately expresses the praise of emptiness of a sign. It does not imitate anything because any imitation is strange to it. It perseveres alone, at times even redundant. And yet invaluable – irreplaceable – discretely absent. A line beyond narration, beyond aesthetics, but not unaesthetic in the least. Worthy of examining through the prism of existentialism and psychoanalysis, of being analysed from the point of view of pragmatism and the Frankfurt School, ready for phenomenological and semiotic vivisection, susceptible to findings of the theory of systems, submissive to empirical criteria and prepared for deceptive concepts of anti-art. Each aesthetics which is part of a specific philosophical trend would certainly have its own diagnosis of the state of linism. Anti-aesthetics could also have much to say about it.

Keywords:

    line

    idea

    sign

    cosmology

    mathematics

    art

    architecture

Bogusław Wowrzeczka - Agropolis. Part I. New Atlantis

doi:10.5277/arc140107

Contemporary strategies for creating sustainable urban ecosystems have become the basis for a new concept of the city in which the distinction between the functions blurs although they once were the domain of rural and urban areas, and the city becomes a place of agricultural production. This form of transformation of the urban structure represents a new continuation idea of integration of the environment and the city – 19-century utopian Garden City Ebenezer Howard, whose prototype was Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis.

Keywords:

    utopia

    a-city-garden

    urban-farm

    post-industrial-areas

    revitalization

Barbara Misztal - The calculation of effective stiffness and elasticity modulus of different types of wood on the basis of measurements of free vibrations

doi:10.5277/arc140108

The paper presents dynamic tests of models made of pine wood, larch, and oak. The tests were conducted in order to calculate the effective stiffness Kef and Eef  of the longitudinal elasticity modulus of different types of wood. The course of free vibrations of each of the models was illustrated in graphs and the differences in effective elasticity modules of softwoods and hardwoods were presented. The calculated longitudinal elasticity moduli Eef were compared with the values provided in the standard PN-B-03150:2000 Wood Constructions. The benefits of quick dynamic tests to determine and compare the qualities of wood were demonstrated. The objective results of the analysis of free vibrations regarding the qualities of wood can be used on a regular basis in designing and evaluating structures, adding to the visual capabilities of the carpenter.

Keywords:

    dynamics

    frequency-of-vibrations

    absorption

    logarithmic-absorption-decrement

    effective-stiffness

    effective-elasticity-module

Joanna Jabłońska, Dominik Rozwadowski - Specialized use of English in architecture, heritage protection and urban planning

doi:10.5277/arc140109

Between March 10, 2013 and November 30, 2013 the Faculty of Architecture of Wrocław University of Technology organized two series of Englishtaught science seminars, entitled: “Specialized use of English in architecture, heritage protection and urban planning”. The course was designed to address the need to refresh and improve language skills of academics and to exchange experience and knowledge. Each meeting focused on improving language and discussion skills and the topics covered problems related to the profession of architect and urban planner. The instructors and the participants gave talks ranging from history, art, civil engineering, structures to individual research and teaching. Despite the various levels of English proficiency of the participants, which ranged from B1 to C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or from “pre-intermediate” to “advanced” in layman’s terms, the seminars ran smoothly and with mutual understanding. This environment also helped to simulate the atmosphere of international conferences, where scientists from all corners of the world, all taught differently, speak with different accents. The contents and atmosphere of the course encouraged the participants to engage in discussions and openly communicate their opinions. They thought that the course was necessary, interesting, inspiring and useful in their future research.

Keywords:

    scientific-seminaries-in-english

    vocational-training

    education

    didactics