DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55687#0386
382
Tadeusz Barucki
Tadeusz Barucki
Maciej Nowicki (1910-1950) - success of the emigrant
Maciej Nowicki was born into a Polish family on June 26, 1910 in the town of Chita in Zabaykalsky Krai,
Siberia. His parents, displaced Irom their homeland like many Poles in that period, decided to return to
Poland - still absent from the map of Europę after having been partitioned at the end of the 18th century
by Russia, Prussia and Austria. After Poland regained independence in 1918, Maciej’s father, Zygmunt
Nowicki, a lawyer and prominent peasant movemenr activist - later also senator of the reborn Republic
of Poland - was given the post of consul generał in Chicago. There, while continuing his education in
an American school, young Maciej was exposed to a new world After returning to Poland, he continued
his art education in Warsaw and later in Kraków. In 1928, Maciej Nowicki enrolled at the Faculty of
Architecture, Warsaw Technical University, from which he graduated in 1936.His pre-war buildings in
Poland include the Tourist Hostel in Augustów (1938, with S. Nowicka and W. Stokowski) and the Centre
of Physical Education in Warsaw which was completed after the war (1939, co-designed with Zbigniew
Karpiński). After becoming an architect Nowicki did not renounce graphic art, as evidenced, for example,
by the excellent graphic layout and illustrations which he designed with Stanisława Sandecka to accompany
the article about the Elegance Pavilion at the International Art and Technology Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
After the outbreak of the war in 1939 Maciej Nowicki when in Warsaw tried to propose in some study
projects advanced structural Solutions. The same type of progressive structure he proposed for his chapel
designed for the Cerntre of Blind Children in Laski - never built - wherc he spent time during the Warsaw
Uprising in 1944 as liason officer of the Polish Home Army.
His idea of the restoration of Warsaw s city centre - not implemented - took shape after the war in
1945. At the end of 1945 Nowicki went to the US as a cultural adviser to the Polish diplomatic mission,
and then, as a consultant on behalf of Poland, participated in the UN Board of Design Consultantts. In
1948, when the Nowickis decided to remain in the US, he was employed at the School of Design at North
Carolina State College in Raleigh, N. C. and in Raleigh he desined. Nowicki could not live without de-
signing, but access to the profession was strictly regulated in the US. He therefore cooperated with different
American architects. In Raleigh he worked with Deitrick on Paraboleum.
Its composition is based on two huge reinforced-concrete parabolic arches (hence the name of the
hall - Paraboleum), sloping in opposite directions, their mutual intersection overlapping the outline of
their horizontal projection, and between them the roof is suspended on Steel cables over a mono-space
huge arena. Tensile structure and its membranę idea was known sińce fair pavilions in Niznyj Novgorod
designed by Vladimir Shukhov in 1895, but in Raleigh it was used in a completely new way. The essence
of this innovative solution is a complete break with the established classical columns-and-architrave con-
struction. It was the fort step into the space structure.
Nowickis finał work was a project for the new Capital city ofChandigarh, which was, after his untimely
death, developed by Le Corbusier. Nowicki worked on this project as part of a team together with Albert
Mayer and Henley Whittlessey, but these co-designers unambiguously underlined Nowickis leading role
in the development of the project. Indian authorities decided to employ Nowicki for further Chandigarh
construction. In his circumstances it was necessary to elear his position in Raleigh.
On his way back to the States, the TWA Constellation piane crashed in the African desert approxi-
mately 100 kilometres of Cairo in the last day of August 1950. Nonę of the passengers survived.
Tadeusz Barucki
Tadeusz Barucki
Maciej Nowicki (1910-1950) - success of the emigrant
Maciej Nowicki was born into a Polish family on June 26, 1910 in the town of Chita in Zabaykalsky Krai,
Siberia. His parents, displaced Irom their homeland like many Poles in that period, decided to return to
Poland - still absent from the map of Europę after having been partitioned at the end of the 18th century
by Russia, Prussia and Austria. After Poland regained independence in 1918, Maciej’s father, Zygmunt
Nowicki, a lawyer and prominent peasant movemenr activist - later also senator of the reborn Republic
of Poland - was given the post of consul generał in Chicago. There, while continuing his education in
an American school, young Maciej was exposed to a new world After returning to Poland, he continued
his art education in Warsaw and later in Kraków. In 1928, Maciej Nowicki enrolled at the Faculty of
Architecture, Warsaw Technical University, from which he graduated in 1936.His pre-war buildings in
Poland include the Tourist Hostel in Augustów (1938, with S. Nowicka and W. Stokowski) and the Centre
of Physical Education in Warsaw which was completed after the war (1939, co-designed with Zbigniew
Karpiński). After becoming an architect Nowicki did not renounce graphic art, as evidenced, for example,
by the excellent graphic layout and illustrations which he designed with Stanisława Sandecka to accompany
the article about the Elegance Pavilion at the International Art and Technology Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
After the outbreak of the war in 1939 Maciej Nowicki when in Warsaw tried to propose in some study
projects advanced structural Solutions. The same type of progressive structure he proposed for his chapel
designed for the Cerntre of Blind Children in Laski - never built - wherc he spent time during the Warsaw
Uprising in 1944 as liason officer of the Polish Home Army.
His idea of the restoration of Warsaw s city centre - not implemented - took shape after the war in
1945. At the end of 1945 Nowicki went to the US as a cultural adviser to the Polish diplomatic mission,
and then, as a consultant on behalf of Poland, participated in the UN Board of Design Consultantts. In
1948, when the Nowickis decided to remain in the US, he was employed at the School of Design at North
Carolina State College in Raleigh, N. C. and in Raleigh he desined. Nowicki could not live without de-
signing, but access to the profession was strictly regulated in the US. He therefore cooperated with different
American architects. In Raleigh he worked with Deitrick on Paraboleum.
Its composition is based on two huge reinforced-concrete parabolic arches (hence the name of the
hall - Paraboleum), sloping in opposite directions, their mutual intersection overlapping the outline of
their horizontal projection, and between them the roof is suspended on Steel cables over a mono-space
huge arena. Tensile structure and its membranę idea was known sińce fair pavilions in Niznyj Novgorod
designed by Vladimir Shukhov in 1895, but in Raleigh it was used in a completely new way. The essence
of this innovative solution is a complete break with the established classical columns-and-architrave con-
struction. It was the fort step into the space structure.
Nowickis finał work was a project for the new Capital city ofChandigarh, which was, after his untimely
death, developed by Le Corbusier. Nowicki worked on this project as part of a team together with Albert
Mayer and Henley Whittlessey, but these co-designers unambiguously underlined Nowickis leading role
in the development of the project. Indian authorities decided to employ Nowicki for further Chandigarh
construction. In his circumstances it was necessary to elear his position in Raleigh.
On his way back to the States, the TWA Constellation piane crashed in the African desert approxi-
mately 100 kilometres of Cairo in the last day of August 1950. Nonę of the passengers survived.