Is contemporary design a prototype of the future or a show of competence? Michał Piasecki: A prototype of the future. Architects today operate at the boundaries of many fields and look for combinations that will enable them to create the best spaces. An architect today draws on biology, IT and many other fields. Bigger projects are developed by multidisciplinary teams.
The summer season is often the time of reflection about the architectural situation of Poland. Polish resorts converge all possible architectural problems like a lens. Can you see any chance for a change in this situation at the level of local authorities and private investors? Hanna Kokczyńska: Poland is a picturesque country with beautiful wild nature, which could become an attractive travel destination. It could if it weren’t for the nightmarish architecture and urban design of Polish cities. Omnipresent signboards and pastel plasters complete the image of misery. Lack of education and aesthetic ignorance of most Poles are so deeply rooted that I wouldn’t count on investors. A change may only be brought by regulations specifying the principles of billboard location, of windows exchange in old buildings or prohibiting the use of pale pink paint at the facades of renovated blocks of flats. Have renderings replaced contemporary architectural problems? What is their function today? Is architecture designing still about solving problems or about creating impossible concepts? MP: Architecture is about both of them. At everyday basis it solves many problems, including the most fundamental ones. Without visionary ideas and projects that are impossible to implement it would be difficult to have an advanced architectural discourse.
Does architecture make us happier?
MP: I don’t know whether architecture has the power to make people happier, but well designed space definitely has a positive effect on the moods of its users.
As regards the quality of architectural design, differences resulting from economic and political situation of particular regions are visible. Is it possible to indicate areas that are particularly well developed in this regard?
Jacek Majewski: The creative sector is driven by the capabilities of people who form a specific social group. Another important factor is the possibility to receive interesting commissions. I think there are a few strong centres of this type in Poland, which create favourable conditions for the development of such markets due to the rational activity of their local authorities. Operating in Warsaw, we have access to the greatest number of commissions, but we also have to deal with the toughest competition, which stimulates dynamic growth.
The title of the exhibition that opens the whole project – The avant-garde of tomorrow? – draws on a relationship between two terms. Are strong avant-garde movements in your opinion visible in contemporary design? Is there or will there soon emerge an overriding trend subjugating all others, setting and outlining the image of contemporary architecture? Mikołaj Molenda: Current discussions often refer to 3D print – a manufacturing technology that is new in the context of architecture and may become a characteristic element of designs in the 2010-2020 decade. Another aspect, though I’m not sure if it may be regarded avant-garde, but it definitely is contemporary and present in architecture, is an interdisciplinary team and borrowings from other domains, e.g. biology.
What is your designing dream? MP: We have many of them.
123