The Architecture of Warsaw of the Second Republic
The Warsaw School of Architecture Against a Backdrop of the Cultural Changes of the
Interwar Period
The author deals with the architecture of mid-war Warsaw but she presents it in a very
wide anthropological context – aesthetic, cultural, social, technical, philosophical,
economic... Therefore, in this book everyone can find something inspiring–appreciate the
beauty of the presented objects, understand their functions, learn about the history of
Warsaw, find a connection with the present, and first of all, learn to “read
architecture”–notice how much it can tell us about the societies that created it.
..“The Architecture of Warsaw of the Second Republic”
is a book containing just about a complete over view of social ideas and artistic
programs, urban and cultural policy, and organizational and administrative constraints
applied in the practice of architecture of the discussed period. There is also a
discussion of the myths and traditions that were referred to and the schools of
architecture and artistic groups that created or inspired it. It also describes the
achievements of the most renowned designers of that time. All this is done with extensive
erudition and familiarity with literary, artistic, and even philosophical contexts... This
is especially true as in the form applied by the author, the interwar period is presented
as a period that was truly fruitful and rich in both ideas and their implementation.
Looking from a perspective of postwar achievements in this field, it stirs admiration and
envy.
from the preface by Andrzej Mencwel
Foreword
.
Introduction
Myth and Reality
.
Sublimating the Concept of the Nation during the Partitions
Liberation: The Great Opening
Myth as a Locomotive for Action
.
The Manor House Style
Garden-City
.
Small-Town Nature
The Reality of the 19th Century City
.
The Unrelenting Fate of Street Frontage
Academism
Principles of Harmony
.
“Dwelling and City”
The Social Pedigree of the City Council
Finances and Infrastructure
The Battle for Influence
Urban Planning
The Character of the City of the “Center”
.
Cooperatives
.
The Living Space of Roman Feliński
The Elitism of Models
.
“The Warsaw School”
Modernizing Academism
.
Warsaw’s Neopositivisim and Cracow’s Neoromanticism
.
The Department of Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology
.
Forces of Attraction
“Gray Brick”
Individualism and Engagement
.
“New Art”
From Futurism to Productivism
Collision with Reality
.
The WSM Warsaw Housing Cooperative
.
Understanding and Feeling
Ideological Maximalism
The Practice of Cooperation
.
“Functional Warsaw”
.
Making Space Dynamic
Luxury Architecture
Dynamism
The Narrative
.
The Ground Floor
The City and the Authorities
.
Tenement Houses
The Skyscraper
Composition and Circulation
.
The Alliance of Urban Planners and the Authorities
The Face of Monumentalism
.
Standardization
The Architecture of a New Humanism
.
A Time for Nature
The Need for Authenticity
The Mutual Penetration of Worlds and Cultures
The New Semantic Code
.
Metalanguage in Poetry and Architecture
.
The Relativity of Time and Culture
A Summing Up
Pluralism
.
Naturalism
Individual Synthesis
Architecture in Times of Threat
The Open Form: A Manifest of Freedom
.
Culturalism
Conclusion
Bibliographical Notes
.
List of Illustrations and Their Sources
Bibliography
Streszczenie (Summary)
.
304 + 36 pages, Paperback, 240 × 270