Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (19.2019)

Figurę 18. Electrical
switchboard of the munici-
pal power plant at Persenki-
vka, status as of 1909. Photo
by Marek Munz, from the I &
I Kotlobulatov Collection
-> see p. 207

the structure, gave the latter its uniąueness, and thus allowed to see an element
of artistry therein. As Peter Haiko notes, Wagner essentially “used the iron
structure to give the building an artistic shape. Thus, its technical entity became
an artistic being.”
The complexes of the power plant on Persenkivka and the tram depot on
Gabrielivka are the first buildings among the discussed group of venues whose
makers decided to break with the architectural forms used until then, and reach
for the Art Nouveau motifs symbolizing novelty and innovation.147 This message
of the power plant building was emphasized by the decoration - the lightning
bolts, denoting electricity, which could be used to illuminate and drive various
machines and devices. On the other hand, inside the complex, between the en-
gine room and the electrical switchgear room, an iron supporting structure was
madę, together with a grille and sumptuous stairs, which - as recommended
by Wagner and by professor Bogucki - were given the artistic forms of Art
Nouveau style (see: Figurę 18).148 Probably a similarly “artistically” formed iron
supporting structure was fitted between the boiler room and the pump and filter
room.149 In the depot at Gabrielivka, as in the Vienna Municipal Railway stations,
the emphasised element consisted in the common iron window lintels in side
elevations and an iron balcony with eaves, madę in the faęade of this buildings
avant-corps (Drawing 16).
I hypothesise that the alternative design for the power plant was developed
by Piller, employee of the Municipal Construction Office. However, it cannot
be ruled out that, similarly to the construction of the Viennese Municipal Rail-
way or the Lviv railway station, other architects were involved in the planning
work. Design drawings - which are not known or which have not survived
- would have been decisive in this respect. We should notę that, interestingly
enough, similar motifs of massive rusticated pillars, which were finished with
pinnacles decorated with vertical bars featuring a round plaque applied from
above, on which two volutes were fitted, were used by Władysław Sadłowski
(1869-1940) in the faęade, which was covered from the north-west with the iron
structure of the platform hall of the Lviv train station.150 This decorative motif
was popularized by Wagner in the stations of the Viennese Municipal Railway,
particularly in Josefstadter StraRe and in Gumpendorfer StraRe.151 Numerous
Windows, provided on the faęades of the boiler room and the annex attached
to it from the west, were replaced with large rectangular openings, similarly to
the rooms in the waiting room and the restaurant of the railway station, placed
along the entire height of the faęade. Using of such large Windows, which enabled
better illumination of large and high interiors, was feasible due to the applica-
tion of iron and reinforced concrete structures, which was emphasized in studies

147 T. Pękala, Secesja. Konkretyzacje i interpretacje, Lublin 1995, pp. 95-96.
148 J. Bogucki, Rozwój budownictwa żelaznego i jego wpływ na architekturę/‘Czasopismo Techniczne”,
26,1908, issue 20-21, p. 301.
149 P. Haiko, Otto Wagner, pp. 44-46.
150 See the illustration in: I. >KyK, Jlboie JleoucbKozo: Mierno i óydooHunuu, Khib 2010, pp. 72-/4a.
Sadłowski also used the stylised volutes in the attics of side projections of the railway station
building (details not preserved).
151 G. Kolb, Otto Wagner, pp. 257-258. For photographs of details in the elevations of the stations
mentioned here, see: Otto Wagner. Die Wiener Stadtbahn, particularly pp. 117,119,127,162

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ARTICLES

Tomasz Dywan