The European Union nominations for the Mies van ver Rohe Award, one of the most prestigious awards in architecture, were announced in January 2012. Warsaw Central Station, completed in 1976, was among the buildings nominated. The international jury greatly appreciated the extensive renovation and modernization carried out on the station by Towarzystwo Projektowe, in preparation for the European Football Championship taking place in Poland in 2012.
The Eastern Station also recovered its initial features just before the Euro championships began – in its case, the modernization was devised by the AiB office. In recent years, stops on Warsaw’s crosstown rail line – pavilions marked by unique parabolic thin-shell roofs that were extremely modern when they were constructed – have all gone through at least as much as revitalization. All of these structures had been decaying, dirty and degraded – today they have finally retrieved their appeal and the sympathy of Warsaw's population.
The Center of Architecture, meanwhile, has taken up the mission of refreshing the silhouettes of the architects of these distinctive facilities: Arseniusz Romanowicz and Piotr Szymaniak. In late 2012, the monograph AR/PS. Architektura Arseniusza Romanowicza i Piotra Szymaniaka was published, and this summer, the book sees its translation into English.
AR/PS is a collection of essays about the history of the individual designs, as well as their reception nowadays. Along with the text on the Central Station written by Romanowicz, the volume includes an interview with his son, an analysis of “expression of form, plasticity and subtle detail” manifested in buildings created by the team, and a text by a Swiss architecture critic who places Central Station among similar realizations in Western Europe. The book also contains interviews with five architects involved in the renovations and modernizations of Romanowicz and Szymaniak projects, as well as 200 photographs – both contemporary and archival, some of which are published for the first time.
The initiators of the book project say the idea came to them unexpectedly. When Central Station renovations began, the Center of Architecture convinced Polish State Railway authorities to make the elements that had been removed from Poland’s biggest train station accessible again, such as the lighted information boards and platform signs. In June 2011, the architect and artist Aleksandra Wasilkowska constructed Time Machine - an installation resembling a “time-space tunnel” – which remained on view in the main hall for several weeks. A few months later, the same light boxes and boards were auctioned. The profits were going to be dedicated to commemorating the station's architects within its space. The outcome, though, exceeded organizers’ expectations – they managed to raise 100,000 złoty, permitting the two architects to be celebrated in yet another way – with a book.
According to the editor of the book, Grzegorz Piątek, architecture is a discipline whose main goal is "not to manifest political stances, but to resolve utilitarian and technical problems in a systematic and formally consistent manner". The biographies of Romanowicz and Szymaniak provide a significant basis for illustrating work in their field during the People’s Republic of Poland – a story that is finally rid of sentiment or political and historical prejudices.
The book, designed by Błażej Pindor, will soon be available internationally and presented at the NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in New York in late September 19-22.
Launch of the English Edition
The launch event, to take place at the Studio Theatre in Warsaw on September 9th, is going to feature a talk by David Crowley, titled Now that the Future is the Past... the Central Station and Socmodernist Architecture in Poland. David Crowley is a writer with a long-standing interest in Polish architecture. In his lecture, he is going to reflect on the rise and fall of the iconic edifices raised in the times of the People’s Republic of Poland, as well as their place in Poland today. He will focus on constructions such as: Warsaw’s Central Railway station (and the chain of suburban stations which connect to it – Stadion, Powiśle, Śródmieście and Ochota), Spodek in Katowice, or the Forum Hotel in Kraków. With their dramatic cantilevers and alien forms, these Socmodernist structures once seemed to defy gravity and to proclaim the future. Nowadays, Crowley claims, they stand out in the grey landscape of the high rise housing and uniform offices, thanks to their virtuoso engineering, abstract artistic schemes, and high quality materials.
AR/PS.The Architecture of Arseniusz Romanowicz and Piotr Szymaniak Book Launch
September 9th, 2013, 7 p.m.
Teatr Studio, Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw (entrance from Marszałkowska side)
Author: Anna Cymer; translated with edits by Anna Micińska, 03.09.2013
