Issue 2(58)/2019

DOI: 10.5277/ARCHITECTUS

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Articles

Sebastian Wróblewski - Neo-Gothic mausoleum of baron von Lachmann-Falkenau in Jałowiec (Wingendorf)

doi:10.5277/arc190201

The neo-Gothic mausoleum in Jałowiec (Wingendorf) designed by Carl Johann Lüdecke (1826–1894) is a unique example of the union of architecture, sculpture and surrounding landscape in the Silesian province of the 2nd German Empire. Two versions of the Jałowiec project, from 1870 and 1881, varied in detail and symbolism, are discussed. Symbolic meanings of sepulchral sculpture designed by the architect had been changed by the family of baron von Lachmann. The final sculpture representing Robert baron von Lachmann did not have as much national and secular meaning as the design by the architect but more Christian aspects. The effect of close relations between the greenery and landscape space surrounding the graveyard with the mausoleum’s architecture still remains, despite large destruction, being an original example of aestethics of the “Wilhelminian” era in Lower Silesia and as such should be protected.

Keywords:

    mausoleum

    architecture

    19th-century

    neo-gothic

    sculpture

Alejandro Cervilla García - The skin and bones of structure. A brief history of how Mies van der Rohe revealed the skeleton of the house

doi:10.5277/arc190202

Mies van der Rohe is considered one of the great masters of the 20th century, both for the coherence of his work and for his ability to make modern architecture based on the importance of structure. This is recognized by the architect and architectural critic, Peter Blake, in the chapter he devoted to Mies van der Rohe, entitled The Mastery of Structure, in his “Masters of Architecture” series. In the present article we would like to analyze the evolution of the image of structure in the houses of Mies van der Rohe, from his very first dwelling, Riehl House, built in Berlin in 1907, to his last house, Morris Greenwald, built in Weston in 1953. We will see how structure underwent a radical transformation over this period progressing from the innermost hidden realm of Architecture outwards to its exterior, and how in this process, the German maestro managed to transcend the idea of structure and its load-bearing capability to convert it into the main artistic element of his architecture.

Keywords:

    mies-van-der-rohe

    riehl-house

    mosler-house

    esters-house

    lange-house

    weissenhofsiedlung

    wolf-house

    tugendhat-house

    farnsworth-house

    structure

Elżbieta Grodzka - Urban transformation of the Old Town in Wrocław during the period of the Polish People’s Republic as a document of political and social changes

doi:10.5277/arc190203

The article is a short brief about urban changes in the Old Town in Wrocław during the Polish People’s Republic. Intensive rebuiliding activities have begun at the end of 1940’s. Historical buildings around the Main Square and Solny Square were the first to be reconstructed. However, since 1956 the return to pre-war modernism ideas has been observed. New architecture and urbanism were supposed to be a symbol of new social order and technological progress. Despite of ambitious plans of transforming Wrocław’s city centre into a modern downtown the pace of rebuilding of The Old Town dropped dramatically in the 1970’s and 1980’s. At the end of the communist era in Poland, thanks to the gradual departure from the centrally planned economy, the number of infill buildings in the Old Town has increased considerably.

Keywords:

    old-town

    wrocław

    post-war-rebuilding

    old-towns-rebuilding-in-20th-century

Aneta Pawłowska - Dreams about the metropolis or public architecture of the 21st century in Łódź

doi:10.5277/arc190204

The aim of the article is to analyze the changes that have taken place in the development of the building structures in Łódź over the last twenty years in the context of the popular vision of Łódź as a metropolis city. Such concept is particularly popular among the city’s inhabitants and the city magistrate. The architectural objects which were taken into consideration have a positive impact on the image of Łódź, according to the common perception of Łódź residents and its modern media. The most successful urban transformations (streets modernization, the Centrum Tram Station and the attempt to create a New Center for Łódź) are briefly presented, as well as revitalizations of the post-factory areas in the city (“Manufaktura”, OFF Piotrkowska, EC1 powerhouse). New projects are also under consideration, such as Łódź Fabryczna Station, new hotels and office buildings that have been constructed in recent years.

Keywords:

    łódź

    architecture

    21st-century

Anna Wojtas-Harań - Detached house – between luxury and economy. The district of Szklarska Poręba – the specificity of the development

doi:10.5277/arc190205

The intention of the article was to highlight the problem of selecting vital elements in order to protect the landscape, which also consists of specific architecture and urban planning. It was also intended to show the advantages of attractive quarters and recognize the premises that decided about this uniqueness. A method of observation and study of individual cases was adopted. The analysis covered the construction of significant, selected buildings, based on archival documents, photographic materials, and site visits. The research shows that the applied design solutions, characteristic of the Karkonosze Mountains resorts, were the consequence of new ideas emerging in art, life and architecture. In confrontation with the present day, the luxury of historical solutions relied, among others also to leave space for the surrounding mountains. Taking into account the effect obtained, this principle should be accepted as timeless.

Keywords:

    villas

    pensions

    regional-architecture

    urbanization

Marta Rusnak, Piotr Chmielewski, Joanna Szewczyk - Changes in the perception of a presbytery with a different nave length. Funnel church in eye tracking research

doi:10.5277/arc190206

This paper constitutes the second part of a three-part report considering an eyetracking survey that took place in 2017 at the Department of History of Architecture, Art and Technique at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The study focused on how people perceive historic buildings. The first part of the report discussed the way people perceive the depth of the nave of a Gothic church. In the second part the researchers were interested in how the length of the nave affects the perception of the entire layout of the church and in what circumstances the observers are most willing to pay attention to the area of the presbytery. The survey included the testing of the so-called tunnel church effect theory, according to which the longer the nave, the more attention is paid to the presbytery.

Keywords:

    eye-tracking

    gothic-cathedral

    perception-of-architecture

    funnel-church

    presbytery

Rafał Mazur, Maciej Piekarski, Szymon Filipowski - Augmented reality as a component of participation in shaping the architectural space

doi:10.5277/arc190207

The article discusses the issue of presenting architectural designs in order to allow the external form of buildings to be judged by a wide range of stakeholders. The three-dimensional mock-ups, and since the dissemination of information technologies, also two-dimensional visualizations, have been the tools used in the hitherto practice. The authors believe that there is a tool that has the advantages of both previously mentioned and does not have their disadvantages. It is augmented reality. The article presents its concept and an overview of available methods of visualizing objects in the augmented reality environment. Typical examples of discrepancies between the appearance of the completed object and its presentation in the design phase, which could be avoided using BIM technology as a design tool, and augmented reality as a medium transmitting visual information, have been indicated. Attention was paid to the possibility of social participation in shaping the architectural forms of buildings, which could take  the form of passive or active participation.

Keywords:

    augmented-reality

    social-participation

    architecture

    proportions

    structural-form

Marcin Charciarek - Aporias of architecture, or the contest between the idea and matter

doi:10.5277/arc190208

The article refers to the problems of defining architecture. By showing the relationship between the idea and the matter of the work, it seems possible to indicate a certain interchangeable dependence about the origin of the form in architectural art. The purpose of the article is not to indicate – what determines the construction of the building but the division (supported by historical examples) what is more important for the architect – the idea or matter of the work? The author leaves the application to the reader.

Keywords:

    idea

    matter

    material-of-work

    architecture

Ada Kwiatkowska - Beyond-beauty of the contemporary architecture: narrations of the creator, receiver and architectural form

doi:10.5277/arc190209

The complexity and variability of contexts of contemporary architectural form are crucial in understanding the meaning of beauty and kitsch. The present category of beauty can define the wide spectrum of phenomena, from the classical beauty, through the ugliness to anti-beauty. It also relates to the notion of kitsch, which can be placed in the same wide spectrum. The ambiguity and relativity of the esthetical criteria of valuation of digital age cause, that new categories of beauty and kitsch are born, exploring the same field of formal expressions, the so-called beyond-beauty. Interpretation of the contemporary architecture requires to define new criteria of esthetical evaluation of the architectural forms. In the paper, the fundamental estimation’s criteria of the aesthetical value of contemporary architectural forms are formulated in the aspect of their beauty or uglinesses based on the hermeneutic method of analysis of the representative examples of contemporary art and architectures on three levels of the interpretative complexity: from the analysis of the meaning of the creator’s narration (variables a priori), by the analysis of the receiver’s narration (variables a posteriori), to the analysis of the narration of the form (metaphoric variables of message).

Keywords:

    esthetical-criteria

    beauty

    kitsch

    architectural-form

    transformation

Angelika Lasiewicz-Sych - Positive beauty: essay on beauty of everydayness

doi:10.5277/arc190210

Bearing in mind the human dimension of architecture, the nowadays experienced deficit in interest in architecture of life environment may be worrying. The role of architecture should not be limited to presentation and sale of spectacular images that may screen real problems of the human environment. On the contrary it should represent people’s life and aspirations and encourage them to dwell in public spaces together with other people. The paper presents some ethical issues in architecture resulting from globalization processes, from neglecting the human scale and importance of the variety of everyday life of public space in the city. It is argued that the convincing reason for beauty in architecture nowadays should be related to creating new, good and important experiences for daily users of architecture.

Keywords:

    city-architecture

    community

    placemaking

    human-scale

    open-form

Joanna Kostrzewska - Making alterations in an architectural work without the author’s consent under Polish copyright law

doi:10.5277/arc190211

This paper tackles the issue of making alterations in an architectural work without the author’s consent. The analysis made therein is mostly based on the stipulations of ar. 49 cl. 2 of the Law of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights of 4 February 1994 in accordance to which a legal successor, even if he has gained full economic rights, may not alter the work without the author’s consent, unless the alterations are caused by obvious necessity and the author has no justified reason for objecting to them. The paper discusses the premise of obvious necessity and the premise of no justified grounds for objection. Problems which emerged in concrete cases are discussed herein in the light of court verdicts based on the said regulation. The analysis of these examples leads to the following conclusions. First – architectural works reveal some specific differences from other works of creation. Second – the specific character of architectural creation should be taken into account while construing the regulations pertinent to copyright and neighbouring rights. Third – the principle is the need to receive the author’s consent to alterations in an architectural work. Fourth – the exception to this rule is that the alterations in an architectural work can be introduced without the author’s consent if and only if both requirements have been fulfilled i.e. the obvious necessity and the absence of the author’s justified objection. Finally, the fifth – both the authors and the investors should definitely take into account not only the administrative-legal aspect related to a building process but, also, its legal aspect related to copyright issues.

Keywords:

    copyright

    architectural-work

    design-changes

    construction-project

    building

Julia Wronkowska - Non-visual experience of space and the problem of sensory deprivation in contemporary urbanized environment

doi:10.5277/arc190212

This article discusses the problem of contemporary culture which is the dominant role of the visual representation of reality. We evaluate architecture and urban planning superficially based on visual aspects, forgetting about the wealth of non-visual experiences. This approach to designing architecture and urban space results in a suffused sensory landscape of the city, pollution of air and the urban sonic space. This problem manifests itself particularly in the case of blind people. Based on the study of literature with the subject of architecture, psychology of perception, typhlology, as well as philosophy, an attempt was made to outline the cultural background of postmodern reality suffused with information, then to describe the role of the senses and their potential in creating space not only accessible to blind people, but also wealthier in terms of aesthetics for all its users. The analysis of the literature on the subject has been supplemented with own observations and local visions for non-visual reception. Both from the literature on the subject and from own observations, it appears that the role of the senses and emotions in architecture and urban planning is still insufficiently researched. In the author’s opinion, any research on this topic may turn out to be extremely valuable, because looking at the space through the prism of all senses would have a chance to become an important design tool to tackle the problem of contemporary oculocentric reality.

Keywords:

    non-visual-experience-of-space

    sensory-deprivation

    aesthetic-involvement

    emotional-reception-of-space

    sounds-of-architecture

Dominika Oleś - Revitalization project of the area of the former Uthemann zinc smelter

doi:10.5277/arc190213

On the 14th of December 2017 Dominika Oleś received an award with a distinction in the competition organized by the General Conservator of Monuments and Historical Monuments and Art Conservators Association Poland for the best scientific and popularizing works pertaining to conservation of monuments and museology. The honored master thesis was defended at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology in July 2017. The article presents fragments of the graphic part of the project and describes the main ideas of master diploma Projekt rewitalizacji terenu po dawnej hucie cynku Uthemann w Katowicach-Szopienicach na cele kulturowo-biznesowe (Revitalization project of the area of the former zinc smelter Uthemann in Katowice-Szopienice for cultural-business functions). The main project’s intension was to creatie a ­­suggestion of the use of the postindustrial complex at the same time compromising the contemporary context and preservating the precious Silesian heritage.

Keywords:

    revitalization

    zinc-smelter

    katowice

    general-conservator-of-monuments