notonly architecture

Scaffolded urbanity

R. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:37:33 +0000

There is (there was?) a nice piece of scaffolding in Berlin: an empty plot near carefully restored Leipziger Platz was filled with a green fabric with an ad, reducing urbanity to an up-right surface or – in other words – to a shallow scenography that simply follows the spatial rules of the square. An amazing happens at the back: a steel mountain of exposed scaffolding seems to be constantly moving, marching towards the square and leaving traces of the move in the space – as the futurists imagined long time ago. Is this side not that important as the green – in both meanings – one?

And the last question: how did they come up with the green colour for the cladding in this perfectly grey neighbourhood?

Scaffolding

R. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:49:46 +0000

That’s what can be seen right after Belchatow on the way to Warsaw: a mighty stack of scaffolding. What is the function for that? I don’t know – I passed by this structure 4 times during the past 2 months and each time it was just proudly standing there, neither growing up nor being dismantled, with nothing happening on or within it, with a crane aligned beautifully. The temporary that was given permanence.

Intangibility, blurring of the edges, mesmerizing repetition, unusual depth and apparent fragility of the elements – how often do we achieve those in architecture?

Speaking out silently

R. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:58:44 +0000

Just continuing the previous post: this is a tombstone’s fragment that poetically says in Polish:

I lived as you live now

Does the living moss contribute to the poetry anyhow?

Icons

R. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:33:57 +0000

On the way out from Sarlat in France – a charming medieval city where Jean Nouvel did his conversion of a church – there is a cemetery filled with beautiful little glass sheds, providing shelter for a large number of graves. The structures are delicate and shaped as presently-very-fashionable iconic houses, eaveless and carefully proportioned.

I have no idea what kind of tradition makes the people of Sarlat build these pieces, nevertheless they contribute something really special to the cemetery. Do they provide some kind of homeness for the dead? Do they ease the longing of the living? Are they architecture more of the former or of the latter?

Nameless beauty no 1: a greenish shed

R. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:42:18 +0000

By any chance do you remember a beautiful book by Bernard Rudofsky ‘Architecture without architects’, originally published in 1964? A book that in the age of Archdaily.com seems completely obsolete although it still fascinates?

I am going to post here my discoveries: nameless beauties that pop up suddenly when I am on way to some places, mostly in Poland. That’s the first one: a greenish shed on the way to Leszno. A simple work, almost minimalistic, with smart detailing and poetic selection of colours.

Drozdz rulz!

R. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:54:04 +0000

A week ago, in Wroclaw’s National Art Museum, Stanislaw Drozdz’s solo exhibition opened. Although considered an artist by the critics and a poet by Drozdz himself, he also could be called an architect or – to be more precise – a 3-D poet. Among various pieces, on display there are 3 spaces, including my favourite ‘Miedzy’ which translates into ‘In-between’. ‘Miedzy’ is a rather small room where all surfaces – ceiling, floor and 4 walls – are upholstered with letters which are ingredients of the word ‘miedzy’ and which actually never form it, randomly distributed all over the room.

It was the second time when I entered this space (first time was almost 2 years ago in Warsaw) and the feeling again was overwhelming – one really feels in-between the architecture and the intelligence of the author. Can real architecture do the same? Is any architect in the real world able to create such a suggestive and subjective space? A claustrophobic, elegant and sterile space where sterility, elegance and claustrophoby are reinforced by graphics? A pure intensity? A breath-taking entity where it is rather mind that matters, not the atmosphere?

The other two spaces will I will show later.

Just starting

R. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:07:43 +0000

If having my own blog is a good idea – I don’t know.

How it is going to develop – I don’t know either.

I am a Polish architect living in Wroclaw, I practise architecture in many ways, architecture both fascinates me and bores me. This blog is going to show all the things that happen nearby my architecture, maybe sometimes instead of or despite of that. It is not about presenting well-trained architectural muscles of credibility and quality – as on www.rr-a.pl – but rather about small architectural episodes that come to my mind or to my sight from time to time. Enjoy!