DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41588#0026
The architects os the two versions of the Moderate Modernism os the nineteen-twenties designed
relatively diverse works. They combined the maturity os their own prosessional workshop with the
advanced but selective acceptance os the principles os Modern architecture. They adopted its ideas
rather than its sorms.
Contemporary tendencies were most sully expressed in the architectural trend generally reserred to
as Modern Architecture. Compared with the earlier pre-1914 Modernism, this uncompromising and
novel architecture os the nineteen-twenties and early thirties has sully mature qualities expressed in its
comprehensive approach to art and social problems as well as in its attempts to work out scientisically
objective rules governing architecture. The trend is also reserre to as Avant-Garde or Functionalism
because os the novelty of its sorm or its radical sunctionality. It was given the name oslnternational
Style as it used aesthetic patterns os international origin and range, osten without regard to local and
climatic requirements. Both theoreticians and practicians os the avant-garde were sascinated by the
rationality os the machine; they saw an aesthetic model sor architecture in the elimination or
everything that was unnecessary from the point os view os sunction. They rejected all decorativeness.
They used elementary forms — masses and sursaces. They took their inspiration srom contemporary
movements in' painting and sculpture in solving sormal and aesthetic questions. An identisiable set os
sorms and motiss was fashioned for international architecture; light arrangements os lines,
intersecting masses, horizontal ribbons of windows, the whiteness os smooth walls, roostop terraces,
and the detaching os the mass srom the ground by raising it on columns.
Behind the vocabulary of sorms there stood a grammar — the philosophy os Modern
Architecture. The sunctionalists were linked by a sensitivity sor the social programming tasks and
aims os architecture. Sometimes arbitrarily, they saw architecture as a tool sor stimulating social lise.
They proposed a total view os architecture — from urban planning all the way to interior surnishings
and slexible plans. Faced with the scale os the task besore architecture, they propagated
industrialization, standardization, and restraints on individuality.
The primary group os artists in Warsaw, responsible sor propagating the concepts os avant-garde,
concentrated around the Blok Group srom 1924 onwards.
The magazines Blok srom 1924 and Praesens srom 1926 published articles by Mies van der Rohe,
Theo van Doesburg and Johann J. P. Oud. The views os Lc Corbusier were also presented. The
Praesens Group gathered not onl/ artists but many architects as well — young Modernists beginning
their prosessional activity such as Szymon Syrkus, Bohdan Lachcrt, Jozcs Szanajca, J6zes
Malinowski, Helena Syrkus, and Barbara and Stanislaw Brukalski. Warsaw architects belonging to
Praesens, as well as those acting outside it, sormed several avant-garde creative groups, usually
two-man teams, during 1926. The ideologist os Warsaw’s architectural avant-garde was Szymon
Syrkus. In an article published in 1926, he propagated the ’’machinism os architecture”. Syrkus
sormulated a quasi mathcmatical'sormula in which architecture was a sunction os social, technical,
and spatial-artistic sactors.7
The .participation os artists in groups promoting Modernism in Warsaw is clearly visible in the
strong inssuence exerted on architecture by the avant-garde artistic movements os various origin as
well as in the interpretation os the building as sculpture.
The Polish Tress Printig House, designed by Maksymilian Goldberg and Hipolit Rutkowski, was
built between 1926 and 1929 as a spatial composition os intersecting simple masses. The
Telecommunications Ossice Building, built srom 1929 to a design by Julian Putcnnan-Szydlowski
was considered an example os the Functionalism and inssuence os the Bauhaus (sig. 16).
Functionalist and Constructivist tendencies arc represented by the complex of the Central Institute-
for Physical Education, built between i 928 and 1929 to a design by Edgar Norwcrth. The articulation
24
relatively diverse works. They combined the maturity os their own prosessional workshop with the
advanced but selective acceptance os the principles os Modern architecture. They adopted its ideas
rather than its sorms.
Contemporary tendencies were most sully expressed in the architectural trend generally reserred to
as Modern Architecture. Compared with the earlier pre-1914 Modernism, this uncompromising and
novel architecture os the nineteen-twenties and early thirties has sully mature qualities expressed in its
comprehensive approach to art and social problems as well as in its attempts to work out scientisically
objective rules governing architecture. The trend is also reserre to as Avant-Garde or Functionalism
because os the novelty of its sorm or its radical sunctionality. It was given the name oslnternational
Style as it used aesthetic patterns os international origin and range, osten without regard to local and
climatic requirements. Both theoreticians and practicians os the avant-garde were sascinated by the
rationality os the machine; they saw an aesthetic model sor architecture in the elimination or
everything that was unnecessary from the point os view os sunction. They rejected all decorativeness.
They used elementary forms — masses and sursaces. They took their inspiration srom contemporary
movements in' painting and sculpture in solving sormal and aesthetic questions. An identisiable set os
sorms and motiss was fashioned for international architecture; light arrangements os lines,
intersecting masses, horizontal ribbons of windows, the whiteness os smooth walls, roostop terraces,
and the detaching os the mass srom the ground by raising it on columns.
Behind the vocabulary of sorms there stood a grammar — the philosophy os Modern
Architecture. The sunctionalists were linked by a sensitivity sor the social programming tasks and
aims os architecture. Sometimes arbitrarily, they saw architecture as a tool sor stimulating social lise.
They proposed a total view os architecture — from urban planning all the way to interior surnishings
and slexible plans. Faced with the scale os the task besore architecture, they propagated
industrialization, standardization, and restraints on individuality.
The primary group os artists in Warsaw, responsible sor propagating the concepts os avant-garde,
concentrated around the Blok Group srom 1924 onwards.
The magazines Blok srom 1924 and Praesens srom 1926 published articles by Mies van der Rohe,
Theo van Doesburg and Johann J. P. Oud. The views os Lc Corbusier were also presented. The
Praesens Group gathered not onl/ artists but many architects as well — young Modernists beginning
their prosessional activity such as Szymon Syrkus, Bohdan Lachcrt, Jozcs Szanajca, J6zes
Malinowski, Helena Syrkus, and Barbara and Stanislaw Brukalski. Warsaw architects belonging to
Praesens, as well as those acting outside it, sormed several avant-garde creative groups, usually
two-man teams, during 1926. The ideologist os Warsaw’s architectural avant-garde was Szymon
Syrkus. In an article published in 1926, he propagated the ’’machinism os architecture”. Syrkus
sormulated a quasi mathcmatical'sormula in which architecture was a sunction os social, technical,
and spatial-artistic sactors.7
The .participation os artists in groups promoting Modernism in Warsaw is clearly visible in the
strong inssuence exerted on architecture by the avant-garde artistic movements os various origin as
well as in the interpretation os the building as sculpture.
The Polish Tress Printig House, designed by Maksymilian Goldberg and Hipolit Rutkowski, was
built between 1926 and 1929 as a spatial composition os intersecting simple masses. The
Telecommunications Ossice Building, built srom 1929 to a design by Julian Putcnnan-Szydlowski
was considered an example os the Functionalism and inssuence os the Bauhaus (sig. 16).
Functionalist and Constructivist tendencies arc represented by the complex of the Central Institute-
for Physical Education, built between i 928 and 1929 to a design by Edgar Norwcrth. The articulation
24