Marcin Charciarek

Among the diversity of contemporary architectural motivations we discover these ideas of stylistic media that characterize a traditional way of defining architecture of houses and residential complexes – it concerns tries of monumentalisation of form and transmitting these characteristics of meaning that are considered rejected by the dogma of Modernity.

The purpose of the article is to define the range of academic-didactic subject practiced in The Chair of Elementary Architecture of WAPK, known as Elementary Architecture – Between Rationalism and Poetic of Form. The wide academic range, as well as the aim of the research, allow only to present several aspects of  defining contemporary architectural space. They aim to establish the origins, sources of architectural ideas in broad reference to structural rationalism and resulting from it poetic of form.

The article is an attempt to show the relationship between architectural ideas and concrete matter in the implementation of Polish architecture of the beginning of the 21st century. The first part shows examples in which the perfection of architecture is associated not only with the rational principles of 20th century architecture, but also with what we define as the search for aesthetics in appropriate expression of forms.

The article is an attempt to show the relationship between architectural ideas and concrete matter in the implementation of Polish architecture of the beginning of the 21st century. The second part shows examples in which the perfection of architecture is associated not only with the metaphor principles of 20th century architecture, but also with what we define as the search for aesthetics in appropriate geometry of forms.

The article is an attempt to show the relationship between architectural ideas and concrete matter in the Polish architecture of the beginning of the 21st century. The first part shows examples in which the perfection of architecture is associated not only with the rational principles of 20th century architecture, but also with what we define as the search for aesthetics in the appropriate expression of forms. The second part shows examples in which the perfection of architecture is associated not only with the metaphor principles of 20th century architecture, but also with what we define as the search for aesthetics in appropriate geometry of forms.

The creator of a drawing in the process of unifying idea and architectural material is giving that relation a suitable aesthetic dimension, trying to see in it a clear unity of form and matter. Recording, sketching, drawing – in the face of such delimitation, establish an appropriate range of imagination and organize thinking about architecture ‒ from the idea of illustrating the shape of the intention to making it materialize. Drawing requires an effort of mind and thoughts, matter- that of ordering and selection.

The article discusses the question of light and darkness as the tools for creating figurative and abstract meanings in architecture. The lessons of light and darkness in architecture are the way of defining architectural space through the phenomenon whose nature is difficult to express and the essence is difficult to perceive. The only help we have is the interpretation of models from close and distant past.

Creating a relationship between space and the matter of a work of art has resulted in the fact that the relationships between the exterior and the interior are more important than ever before during the development of modern architecture. Together with the modernist revolution, the engagement of creators in surpassing the threshold of the visible exterior to enter the purely internal plane became the basis for the most radical manifestation of freedom and everything that is connected with defining the new architecture.

It is a common sentiment that concrete is the symbol and essence of materiality in architecture. For many designers the experience of concrete – the liquid stone – is the moment of getting the primeval insight into the nature of architecture and a confirmation that all that exists in the sphere of architecture has some form and matter. From this source spring the works of many an architect. In the following article three examples of Parisian architectural designs are presented, ones that have had influence over the development of ideas in modern architecture. Concrete buildings of Auguste Perret, Le Corbusier and the Beckmann N’Thépé atelier constitute the proof that confirms the thesis that some ideas remain, while others pass – the concrete matter, even though it is subjected to changes, has remained for a hundred years firmly united with the thought that brings the physical shape of architecture to fruition.