TO LIVE IN! DESIGNS BY HELENA AND SZYMON SYRKUS

Modern, comfortable, full of sunshine and with access to all amenities – from private bathrooms to doctors’ offices and kindergartens. This is what distinguished the housing estates designed by Helena and Szymon Syrkus. The couple of avant-garde architects wanted to change the world for the better through their designs, theoretical work, and activities in international organizations. They translated their values into not only the functionality of the designed spaces, but also the architectural quality expressed in functionalist, simple forms, attractive details, and innovative construction solutions. Their architecture was a response to the housing crisis of the interwar period and subsequent wartime destruction. The buildings were intended to offer a habitable space, with everything in place, to people who had often faced housing problems before–laborers and blue-collar workers. Remaining leading examples of modernism to this day, the Syrkus-designed buildings are a valuable source of inspiration for the shaping of residential space in contemporary Poland.

COLOPHON

16 May – 31 August 2024
Art Walk Gallery, Plac Europejski, Warsaw

Curator: Kacper Kępiński
Design of exhibition: Fair Building (Dominika Janicka)
Graphic design: Patrycja Mróz

Models: Onimo. Makiety architektoniczne
Model of the Dr. Berenstein’s Villa: Museum of Architecture in Wrocław
Archival materials: Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, National Digital Archives

Organisers: Fundacja Sztuka w Mieście, Ghelamco
Exhibition under the auspices of the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (NIAiU)

Photos: Katarzyna Średnicka (Media Mafia)
Video: Krzysztof Sobierański (Media Mafia)

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