Scholarly record

POLISH CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE VS. CULTURAL HERITAGE - 21ST CENTURY PRESERVATION THROUGH SUBDUED CREATION

M. A. Urbanska

Abstract

Recent Polish architecture, since the political breakthrough of the year 1989, and definitely at least since the admission of the country into the European Union, has gained great momentum. The euphoria of the newly gained freedom has erupted in the building boom and brought about many astonishing phenomena, not always conducive to protection of cultural heritage, to put it mildly. There are, of course, highly controversial examples of new developments, including the likewise controversial decisions of the state conservation services. Those matters seem to be ever more broadly discussed, both academically and publicly. In the country as ravaged by the atrocities of the last World War and unprecedented shifts of borders as Poland, the issue of cultural heritage protection is particularly inflammatory. The authoress of the article, herself involved professionally, theoretically and in the public architectural debate, is of the opinion that recently the pendulum is increasingly swinging towards the more subdued architecture, site-specific and adequate. There are most interesting examples, aiming at finding a proper architectural contemporary language not as much in confrontation with the heritage, but as its very protection. The article shall present a few case studies of such completed buildings, not chosen because of any similarity of style, which is not dogmatic, but the similarity of their fully respectful attitude towards the extant cultural heritage, while not being dull.

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