DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41588#0027
and layout os the masses was in line with its sunctions — indoor swimming pools, sports halls, ossice
and residential buildings. These buildings may all be described as having motiss considered typical os
the Modern architecture os the nineteen-twenties as well as structural accents (sig. 17).*
The insluence os Dutch Neoplasticism is seen in the Brukaiski villa built between 1927 and 1928
(sig. 19). A three-samily hause built to a design by Bohdan Lachert and J6zcs Szanajca between 1928
and 1929, on the other hand, has clear links with the principles os Le Corbusier.’
In spite os the various links, it was generally accepted that Polish modernists developed their own
sormal tone and, as was put into words in 1929, ’’they designed more lightly than the Germans, more
quietly than the French, and more realistically than the Russians”.10
The participation os the Warsaw avant-garde in the low-cost housing estate building programmes
is highly regarded. Many disserent architects worked on the designs sor the nine £oliborz colonies os
the Warsaw Housing Cooperative, drawn up during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. It was the
young modernists, the Brukalski’s, who instilled a novel impulse into the achievements to date. In
1927, they designed the sourth housing colony; it was completed in 1932 and included minimum one
— and two-room apartments equipped with laborator kitchens." The simple streetside elevations os
houses signalled a turning inwards, towards green interior courtyards silled with air and sunshine.
Galleries, loggias, and stairways opened up to common areas — places sor the sorging os social ties
amongst the residents. The buildings in the seventh colony, which was built between 1930 and 1934 by
the Brukalski’s, used the plan os an arc and a comb-like system (sig. 18). Thus, an almost optimum ”
orientation was achieved, together with a varied composition. By using a sunctional element — the
gallery — sor aesthetic aims, the architects managed to obtain a modern formal essect in spite os
strong economic restrictions. Similarly, Jozes Szanajca and Stanislaw Brukaiski used the aesthetic
essect os spiral tower stairways in a gallery-type residential building sor ossice workers built srom
1930.
The puristic and austerely scientisic Modem current in the nineteen-twenties demonstrates that
Warsaw was more under the insluence os the Bauhaus than os Lc Corbusier, whose ideas were
strongly selt during the nineteen-thirties." it was not represented by a great number os works in
Warsaw, the moderate current being numerically superior. The assumptions and motiss os the
Modern trend did insiltrate, however, the other currents cultivated in Warsaw, thus modernizing the
cityscape. A manisold os currents and trends, passing through each other, were characteristic
qualities os Warsaw architecture os the nineteen-twenties. Warsaw, a city which again sound itsels to
be the capital, demonstrated a great power os absorption. It permeated many ideas and groups os
architects and artists reared in other prosessional circles.
The retreat srom the Modem architecture os the nineteen-twenties — rather violent in the
avant-garde centres os Germany and the Soviet Union aster 1933 — was much milder in Warsaw.
The reason sor this, besides political sactors, was probably the strong position os Moderate
Modernism, which drew inspiration srom tradition while assimilating the avant-garde. Warsaw’s
Moderate Modernism played the role os a stabilizing trend. In addition to the dominant
semi-Modem sorms os the nineteen-thirties, a return to Le Corbusier’s version os Functionalism
became possible during the second hals os that decade. This trend was represented by the houses
designed about 1937 by Helena and Szymon Syrkus as well, as by the works os Juliusz 2urawski.
Especially the works os £urawski demonstrate that Functionalism in Warsaw, somewhat cold,
mechanical, and scientisic in the nineteen-twenties, become more personal and emotional in the
sollowing decade.
25
and residential buildings. These buildings may all be described as having motiss considered typical os
the Modern architecture os the nineteen-twenties as well as structural accents (sig. 17).*
The insluence os Dutch Neoplasticism is seen in the Brukaiski villa built between 1927 and 1928
(sig. 19). A three-samily hause built to a design by Bohdan Lachert and J6zcs Szanajca between 1928
and 1929, on the other hand, has clear links with the principles os Le Corbusier.’
In spite os the various links, it was generally accepted that Polish modernists developed their own
sormal tone and, as was put into words in 1929, ’’they designed more lightly than the Germans, more
quietly than the French, and more realistically than the Russians”.10
The participation os the Warsaw avant-garde in the low-cost housing estate building programmes
is highly regarded. Many disserent architects worked on the designs sor the nine £oliborz colonies os
the Warsaw Housing Cooperative, drawn up during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. It was the
young modernists, the Brukalski’s, who instilled a novel impulse into the achievements to date. In
1927, they designed the sourth housing colony; it was completed in 1932 and included minimum one
— and two-room apartments equipped with laborator kitchens." The simple streetside elevations os
houses signalled a turning inwards, towards green interior courtyards silled with air and sunshine.
Galleries, loggias, and stairways opened up to common areas — places sor the sorging os social ties
amongst the residents. The buildings in the seventh colony, which was built between 1930 and 1934 by
the Brukalski’s, used the plan os an arc and a comb-like system (sig. 18). Thus, an almost optimum ”
orientation was achieved, together with a varied composition. By using a sunctional element — the
gallery — sor aesthetic aims, the architects managed to obtain a modern formal essect in spite os
strong economic restrictions. Similarly, Jozes Szanajca and Stanislaw Brukaiski used the aesthetic
essect os spiral tower stairways in a gallery-type residential building sor ossice workers built srom
1930.
The puristic and austerely scientisic Modem current in the nineteen-twenties demonstrates that
Warsaw was more under the insluence os the Bauhaus than os Lc Corbusier, whose ideas were
strongly selt during the nineteen-thirties." it was not represented by a great number os works in
Warsaw, the moderate current being numerically superior. The assumptions and motiss os the
Modern trend did insiltrate, however, the other currents cultivated in Warsaw, thus modernizing the
cityscape. A manisold os currents and trends, passing through each other, were characteristic
qualities os Warsaw architecture os the nineteen-twenties. Warsaw, a city which again sound itsels to
be the capital, demonstrated a great power os absorption. It permeated many ideas and groups os
architects and artists reared in other prosessional circles.
The retreat srom the Modem architecture os the nineteen-twenties — rather violent in the
avant-garde centres os Germany and the Soviet Union aster 1933 — was much milder in Warsaw.
The reason sor this, besides political sactors, was probably the strong position os Moderate
Modernism, which drew inspiration srom tradition while assimilating the avant-garde. Warsaw’s
Moderate Modernism played the role os a stabilizing trend. In addition to the dominant
semi-Modem sorms os the nineteen-thirties, a return to Le Corbusier’s version os Functionalism
became possible during the second hals os that decade. This trend was represented by the houses
designed about 1937 by Helena and Szymon Syrkus as well, as by the works os Juliusz 2urawski.
Especially the works os £urawski demonstrate that Functionalism in Warsaw, somewhat cold,
mechanical, and scientisic in the nineteen-twenties, become more personal and emotional in the
sollowing decade.
25