Issue 4(44)/2015

DOI: 10.5277/ARCHITECTUS

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Articles

Hanna Golasz-Szołomicka - Window tracery in Silesia from the 15th to the half of the 16th century

doi:10.5277/arc150401

The article presents Silesian traceries which have survived in ten churches created from the beginning of the 15th to mid-16th and also in chapels of churches built earlier. With regard to their composition they may be divided into a central one or several levels. Such forms as circles, pointed arches, semicircular arches, multi-foils and mouchettes were used as in former periods. New compositions were formed from these elements, often being manifold of earlier ones, because they were created for wide quadripartite, sexpartite, and octopartite windows. The new arrangement appeared in the central composition of the window in St Peter and Paul Church in Legnica modeled on the north rosette in the Chartres Cathedral. Rotating mouchettes appeared seldom because they were used in new compositions. In a few windows the whole window-head were filled with identical, small motives. There appeared curvilinear forms and compositions. Traceries have an English origin in which dense fluting is connected, in the upper part, by individual pointed arches and with fluting intersecting in the area below the arch. Silesian builders were familiar with traceries used in the West and they created their own new compositions with these elements.

Keywords:

    silesia

    churches-from-the-15th-to-16th-century

    tracery-windows

Miłosława Sieradzka, Małgorzata Milecka - Convent gardens of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nowy Sącz

doi:10.5277/arc150402

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was established in Rome in 1859 under the leadership of Mother Józefa Karska and Mother Marcelina Darowska. The purpose of the congregation creation was to serve God as well as work for Poland, its future and its revival through the Christian education of women and preparing them for their responsibility in raising a family – in times of partition and persecution of Polishness. So, in 1863 Jazłowiec in Eastern Galicia became the motherhouse of the congregation, where a model of the congregation was created and the basis for educational work was prepared, which the sisters began in September of that year. In the course of time the increasing number of vocations and also the number of pupils, caused the creation of further foundations. The monastery in Nowy Sącz, the so-called “White Monastery”, was built between 1894–1897, as the fourth “settlement” of the Galician Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.     This article presents the sets of gardens which surrounded the monastery of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Nowy Sącz, created in the late 19th century in the former estate of the Franciscans. They were established here by St Kinga (1234–1292), and expulsed by Emperor Joseph II (1785). This is a brief history of the order, focusing on the history of shaping the garden composition, then revealing the main problems of its conservation, vegetation and garden composition research, and in consequence the restoration ideas for the gardens.

Keywords:

    sisters-of-the-immaculate

    nowy-sącz

    monastery-gardens

Aleksander Serafin - The expression of architecture by Coop Himmelb(l)au against the aesthetical concept by Gilles Deleuze

doi:10.5277/arc150404

The article draws attention to the interdependence between Baroque aesthetics and contemporary expressive architecture. A contribution to the reflection has become the philosophical theory by Gilles Deleuze, who considered architecture in the context of a Baroque continuity and liquidity of a form. In this context particular works by group Coop Himmelb(l)au was analysed. On the one hand, the work of this design team is cosmopolitan and commercial, but on the other hand, it aptly fits into the terms of cultural continuity of Austrian and South German tradition. In fact, both Baroque and Expressionism influenced their character.

Keywords:

    architectural-form

    coop-himmelb(l)au

    fold

    leibniz

    baroque

Dorota Łuczewska, Barbara Siomkajło - Protection and documentation of traditional space of Szklarska Poręba – attempts to preserve the genius loci

doi:10.5277/arc150405

The article discussed the role that the subsequent artistic colonies played in shaping the local colouring scheme of Szklarska Poręba. It also presents the specificity of architectural and urban complexes of the town and their relationships with the history and natural conditions of this area. The article also brought up the issue of active prevention of degradation of the character of this place which has been formed for centuries. Drawing and painting studies – artistic documentation of architectural and urban complexes in the open air – have been presented as one of the methods of getting to know these complexes and enriching own design skills and possibilities.

Keywords:

    szklarska-poręba

    regional-architecture

    development-processes

    drawing-and-painting

Joanna Jabłońska - Typology of large-scale public interiors in contemporary hotels

doi:10.5277/arc150406

Large hotel spaces are the most common areas associated with the environment and the city, accessible to all users and determining a representation of the given unit. Apart from spatial solutions, aesthetics, artistic expression, their positive perception is provided by a properly designed layout. The present article focuses on diversification of plan configurations types, their characteristics, advantages and practical application. The elaboration also presents the original author’s typology of large hotel spaces, formulated on the basis of existing schemes of arrangements and concepts for public buildings layouts systematics. The elaborated tool can be widely used in the study of buildings including large public areas.

Keywords:

    hotels-design

    hotels-typology

    hotel-public-spaces

Jerzy Olek - The imperfection of symmetry

doi:10.5277/arc150407

The article presents considerations on symmetry, its perception and attractiveness (or conversely, unattractiveness) as a principle of composition in art and architecture. The symmetry of the world, confirmed both by science and everyday experience, can explain our preference for it. The mirror, given as an example of false visual symmetry, introduces the question of the scale. The author refers to Hermann Weyl who differentiates between various types of symmetry and associates symmetry with the category of beauty. Then the author goes on to discuss symmetry in architecture (e.g. Palladio’s buildings, mosaic floor patterns in churches with the intriguing Necker cube). Mosaics introduce the problem of optical illusions and the dependence of perception upon expectation – a relationship which can open the door to the world of illusion. That is why, argues the author, simple geometric symmetry is not attractive to art. Ambiguity is much more fruitful.     The grid with its multiple symmetry axes, widely used in art, is anti-narrative, anti-developmental and anti-historical, and though it introduces perfect formal order, its monotony may be boring. The author gives examples of modern works departing from the principle of symmetry, like Asymetries by Zbigniew Dłubak, the museum in Bilbao (Frank Gehry), railway station in Kyoto (Hiroshi Hara) or art centre at Stockton-on-Tees (Richard Wilson). Finally, European attachment to symmetry is contrasted with the preference for asymmetry in Zen and in cultures under its influence, i.e. Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Keywords:

    symmetry

    asymmetry

    perception

    architecture

    art

Witold Szymański, Beata Kania, Maurycy J. Kin - Space in architecture, space of architecture

doi:10.5277/arc150408

The paper presents the relations between architecture as one of the elements of culture and various objects in the social sphere. Examples of contemporary existing phenomena and their connections with architecture considered as a reflection of social and technical realities are described. Presenting many selected problems the range of considerations has been shown, in which it is possible and obligatory to carry out cognitive processes referring to what determines architectural space. In the cognitive process the existence of doubts is a necessary condition. It is a necessary requirement for asking questions. And only when we ask questions we may obtain answers. These are necessary conditions of every development. The polemical character of this paper, according to the authors, fulfills this demand.

Keywords:

    culture

    architecture

    backgrounds-for-art

Stanisław A. Desławski - Analysis of residential interiors architecture in “large-slab” as the basis of the term “architecture”

doi:10.5277/arc150409

Changes in the form and function of interiors carried out by the users during the setting of large slab flats allow us to become acquainted with the reasons for these changes and the owners’ understanding of the term “architecture”. In the article, basing on examples of flats chosen from 36 ­examined apartment rooms, transformations made by the users are presented. These transformations are displayed in tables and models. The obtained material traces of architectural self-knowledge of the tenants and not only their declarations, permit the characterization of the “term” architecture – its features and range.

Keywords:

    architecture

    flat-interiors

    lifestyles

    transformation

    definition

Tadeusz Barucki - Frei Otto (1925–2015). Laurels and Death

doi:10.5277/arc150410

The greatest honor for Frei Otto’s activity in the form of the Pritzker award coincided with his death in 2015. His specific creativeness mainly known from his pavilion constructions (German Pavilion at the EXPO in Montreal) embraces a much larger range of constructive solutions often based on examples from nature. Precisely in this range – relatively less known – Frei Otto initiated an international enterprise presaging the values of preservation of the natural environment in the intensely developing world. For the professional Polish environment very important is his relationship full of sympathy and his offering us, in the difficult times of isolation from the Western world, his experiences – in the form of a display, in Warsaw, of his creations, combined with a lecture at the Faculty of Architecture, and also making accessible his book Das hängende Dach (The Suspended Roofs). A specific decree of fate – in the aspect of relations with Poland – was the fact that one of his latest awards Otto Frei received precisely in our country, in Wrocław, at the International Symposium IASS in 2013. This article presents the character of this eminent architect, his most distinctive objects, such as the interior of the Institute in Stuttgart, being the prototype of the planned German pavilion at the EXPO in Montreal, the pavilion itself, the Olympian Stadium in Munich, and also the interior of the Exhibition Hall in Mannheim.

Keywords:

    tent-structures

    hanging-roofs

    biology-and-buildings

    organic-architecture

    the-eduardo-torroja-award

    frei-otto