Anna Maria Wierzbicka

In this article, we will show the diversity of architectonic solutions that include water in the permanent structure of the object, which offers its prominent material and symbolic role. The method used for this research is the inquiry and the analysis of contemporary sacral things in which water plays the role of prima materiel. The research will use the author's narrative method to analysed the architecture of meaning. This study of the architectonic piece will be led through five deliberate and narrative aspects, exploring the author's intention – location, creation date, and narration, among others -project ideas. After a previous search, the project was selected as an example of meaningful objects. The objects are divided into four groups of signifiers: artificial landscape, ecological stream, memory space, and axiomatic medium. The research aimed to show that water as crematoria in meaningful objects does not only have a functional role, it also has a symbolic meaning. The current state of knowledge indicates that, at present, there are no scientific publications that analyse 'water' as an element of parametria. The water in architecture usually is analysed in practical and technical aspects; the semantic part of the project is generally excluded. The question will be studied using projects or finished objects in contemporary sacral architecture.

The authors analyzed the numerous limitations accompanying Le Corbusier in his professional work and their impact on the final shape of residential buildings constructed in Paris. At the same time, they point to the sources of this architecture and discuss various conditions that caused changes in the architect’s decisions. The text will include the authors’ observations resulting from visits to the facilities designed by Le Corbusier, the relationship with investors during the design of residential houses will be presented, their current condition and the transformations that have taken place over the twentieth century will be presented. The text was created as a result of the analysis of source materials, a query at Fondation Le Corbusier, research conducted in situ and interviews with users.

The contemporary architecture of meaning can refer to many cultural patterns. The subject of this article is to show the close relationship between the work of Romuald Gutt and its influence on the design of the Warsaw Pavilion – the Warsaw Insurgents Memorial Chamber. The scientific study was aimed at showing the relationship between the design path and the case study, i.e. study by design. This case study is based upon the analysis of the achievements, the architectural language, the style, the methodology and the design philosophy of the architect Romuald Gutt. The research methodology analyses several aspects of the architect’s work and its influence on the concept of the Pavilion. In this case study, we are considering a universal design method by analysing existing objects designed by the same artist. The architectural legacy, the methodology, the language and the narrative used in Gutt’s creative work allow us to see a whole new quality in the design process of the building we are studying – the Warsaw Insurgents’ Memorial Chamber at the Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery in Wola.

Rem Koolhaas published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan in 1978. He closes the book with a series of concise speculative projects to illustrate his point. The first of these, „The City of the Captive Globe”, is an ambiguous and constantly re-interpreted metaphor for metropolitanism and the lifestyle associated with it. Interpreted as a synthesis of the „retroactive manifesto”, Captive Globe allows us to grasp the ideological background of the urban design thought of Koolhaas and OMA, his design studio. Between 1995 and 2007 OMA carried out the project for the new City Center of Almere near Amsterdam. Through the three postulates of the City of the Captive Globe, the authors attempt an in-depth understanding of Almere master plan, going beyond the analysis of its formal features.