#architecture
#photography & visual arts
#polska 100
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The Centre for Architecture, in collaboration with the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, is pleased to present 'Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak', an exhibition featuring the work of one of the most important Polish architects of the 20th century.
Originally from Tarnawce Grabowska-Hawrylak began studying in Wrocław in the autumn of 1945. Known as the German city of Breslau until that year, the city became the capital of Poland’s Recovered Territories following the Yalta Conference. Wrocław’s mixed heritage makes it home to numerous architectural traditions; the city is well known for its Silesian Gothic and Baroque buildings, but also for the work of early German modernists and the imposing projects of the Communist era.
Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak’s lengthy architecture career spanned much of the second half of the 20th Century, the projects in this exhibition ranging from 1954 to 1993. From her participation in Wrocław’s post-war reconstruction in the 1950s to her modernist designs of the 1960s and 70s and the post-modern aesthetic adopted in her later work in the 80s and 90s, Grabowska-Hawrylak’s career reflects the changing politics and culture of Poland.
While Grabowska-Hawrylak is best known for Wrocław’s massive and sculptural housing complex, popularly referred to as 'Manhattan', her body of work includes many examples of exceptional design: schools from the 1950s, a downtown maisonette building with duplex apartments, a futuristic city center, and more. The 'patches' sewn into Wrocław by Grabowska-Hawrylak remain among the most interesting in the city, occupying an important place in the collective imagination of its citizens.
The Patchwork exhibition features 12 built and 12 unbuilt or speculative works by Grabowska-Hawrylak, presented via drawings, photography and models. A two-story-tall model of Manhattan, her most famous work, will rise from the Centre for Architecture’s mezzanine level.
Every building tells a story. For over five decades, the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław has consistently presented these stories, in an effort to understand what it takes to make good architecture, and how architecture is influenced by life and vice versa. The story told by the architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak is particularly important to us, as it is the tale of our city’s changing identity and of the struggle against architectural mediocrity. The opportunity to tell it to the Centre for Architecture’s public is unique. We believe it will prove that the language of architectural excellence is universal and that it will contribute to a better understanding of our part of the world.
Małgorzata Devosges Cuber & Michał Duda, 'Patchwork' exhibition curators
We are excited to bring Grabowska-Hawrylak’s work to New York City. Her extensive career serves as a window into the history and architecture of communist-era Poland, one that has only recently started to reach our audiences.
Benjamin Prosky, Assoc. AIA., AIANY & Center for Architecture Executive Director
Michał Duda's book Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak will accompany the opening of the exhibition in New York. It is the first comprehensive monograph on one of the most important figures of Polish post-war architecture. The book was awarded the prestigious DAM Architectural Book Award, awarded to the best architectural publications in the world. It was published by the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, and is also available in Polish.
The Centre for Architecture is the premier cultural venue for architecture and the built environment in New York City, informed by the complexity of the city’s urban fabric and in dialogue with the global community. The Centre for Architecture’s aim is to further public knowledge about New York City architecture and architects, foster exchange and collaboration among members of the design, development, building, scholarly, and policy sectors, and inspire new ideas about the role of design in communities by presenting contemporary and practical issues in architecture and urbanism to a general audience.
Find out more: www.centerforarchitecture.org
Related programming
- Opening
Thursday, 28th February 2019, 6:00-8:00 pm
- Symposium
Saturday, 2nd March 2019, 1:00-6:00 pm
- Film Screening – Bloki
Monday, 18th March 2019, 6:00-8:00 pm
A documentary about Polish housing by Konrad Królikowski, 2017
- Contemporary Polish Architecture: From One Paradigm to Another
Wednesday, 17th April 2019, 6:00-8:00 pm
Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak is organised in collaboration with Museum of Architecture in Wrocław.
The exhibition is organised in co-operation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of POLSKA 100, the international cultural program accompanying the centenary of Poland regaining independence.
Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual program NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022.
Patchwork: The Architecture of Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak is organised in cooperation with the City of Wrocław.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Center For Architecture
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Polska 100
polish architecture
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contemporary polish architecture
jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak
