This e-book is available in the english version only.
The book and the accompanying exhibition, planned to be presented in the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw at the beginning of 2021, show designs and implementations of an architect whose multidimensional work remains almost completely unknown in Poland. The authors and curators of the planned exhibition are Łukasz Wojciechowski - an architect and researcher of Szpakowicz’s works, and architect Aleksandra Czupkiewicz.
Jan Szpakowicz – an architect, author of many outstanding designs in the field of single- and multi-family architecture, graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology Faculty of Architecture, professionally associated with the Miastoprojekt-Warszawa Design and Research Office for General Construction, the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Sonatiba design studio and Agence Nationale d’Aménagement du Territoire (Algeria), living in Millas, France since 1992. The book contains an extensive article introducing Szpakowicz’s work and an interview with the architect, in which he talks about the beginnings of his professional career, most important designs and concepts, as well as fascinations and disappointments. The text is accompanied by a rich collection of archival and contemporary photographs, drawings, sketches and designs made by Szpakowicz.
Most space was devoted to the buildings constructed according to Szpakowicz’s designs – primarily to three houses in Zalesie Dolne that became the architect’s manifesto, and his numerous housing estate concepts: Waszyngtona (Warsaw, 1962), Stegna (Warsaw, 1973), Natolin Wyżyny (Warsaw, 1978) and Moczydło (Warsaw 1980), Special needs school in Legionowo (1989), and those implemented abroad: Ain Benian and Tijarat (Algeria, 1982), or the Giberville housing estate (France 1994).
The logical order and mathematical rigor of the systems designed by Szpakowicz make the solutions he proposes extremely universal - they function beyond the scale, function and cultural or stylistic boundaries. His work echoes the inspiration of avant-garde artists from France (Claude Parent), Japan (Kenzo Tange), but above all - the works of architects associated with the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts - Oskar Hansen, Zbigniew Ihnatowicz and Jerzy Sołtan.
The book aims to present and popularize the work of an outstanding architect who, thanks to his unique, original language of design, expanded the boundaries of architecture, connecting the distant worlds of mathematics and art.
Module. The Architecture of Jan Szpakowicz
Authors: Aleksandra Czupkiewicz i Łukasz Wojciechowski
Translation: Grzegorz Piątkowski
Photos: Jakub Certowicz
Graphic design: Michał Majewski
© Copyright by Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu, Wrocław 2020
Dofinansowano ze środków Narodowego Centrum Kultury w ramach programu Kultura w sieci.
