Patrycja Haupt

The contemporary housing environment in Europe is changing dynamically, influenced by factors related to the struggle against climate change and adverse demographic phenomena. The pace of change has also increased in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, conflicts and the energy crisis. These reasons have started a process of change in the approach to the design of residential areas, directing the attention of designers towards meeting the needs linked to creating housing architecture that implements the postulates of connection to nature, inclusivity in response to cultural diversity, and sustainable design by extending the residential space to include rooms or facilities with a different use. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to diagnose the factors that influence the creation of an interior space that is conducive to intergenerational and intercultural integration. The study was carried out under the FRSE, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway grants programme (EOG/21/K4/W/0048W/0175). By assessing the elements of an interior’s composition, the factors that exclude as well as activate its space were examined, as were the spatial conditions that affect building its place-based identity and which influence its activation. The study’s conclusions are illustrated using projects prepared by second-year, first-cycle students at the Faculty of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology, enrolled in Architecture and Architecture in English programmes.

The definition of architecture often repeated after Le Corbusier states that “Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in light”. To fully understand it we should quote his other statement: “Light creates ambience and feel of a place, as well as the expression of a structure”. Juhani Palasmaa, who points our attention to the multisensory reception of architecture, presents the nature of the idea of light in a similar manner. Peter Zumthor, on the other hand, continuing the idea of synaesthesia in the perception of works of architecture - the light, the changes of its intensity and colour - regards it as an element of recording an architectural form in the memory of the viewer. Tadao Ando wrote that such elements like light or wind make sense only when we set them apart from the external world using architecture. Based on these views and the observation of the anthropogenic space, we can acknowledge the compositional role of light as equally fundamental as its functional one, underlined, among others, by the founders of the Bauhaus school, who strived to obtain an effect of rich, natural light within a room. Santiago Calatrava, when asked about its role, answered “Light. I make it in my buildings for comfort”. However, when observing the effects of light and shadow produced by the openwork vaults of the complex in Valencia or the Oriente station in Lisbon, one would be hard pressed not to notice a fundamental compositional intent within them.
The paper will present modern built projects whose main compositional motifs revolve around effects that utilise daylight – translucence, diffusion, reflection, as well as light and shadow effects - in order to establish an extraordinary mood of a form and its interior, against a backdrop of the theoretical thoughts of the practitioners of architecture of the current and past century.

What is the today’s space of a single-family complex in the city? What is the contemporary house in the city like? Based on a comparative analysis of completed housing projects from the first decades of the twenty-first century in Poland and Hungary, the authors have identified characteristics that can be considered essential for building identity of urban space. A discussion of the form and expression of contemporary urban, suburban and peripheral zones, contrasted with areas of rural origin, was used as a background for the study. The subject matter of the study was also presented using student designs prepared as a part of the Architectural and urban design of single-family housing module at CUT. The results of the study indicate that it is possible to oppose the unification of space associated with the excessive growth of peripheral areas and globalisation resulting from the free flow of information – by searching for the value of architecture in local heritage.

The paper addresses the issue of small initiatives undertaken by inhabitants of housing estates to improve the quality of their living environment. The forms of initiatives, initiation and funding were discussed, as well as methods of implementation in cooperation with universities, organizations, commercial entities and self-government units. The effects of both spatial and social measures were analyzed. On the basis of experience in the implementation of the project “Bookshelves” conducted by the Department of Housing Development of the Institute of Urban Design, Cracow University of Technology in cooperation with the self-government of the Revitalization Department of the Cracow City Council discussed possibilities and threats in the implementation of such projects.

Water and greenery are some of the most obvious elements of context in the design of housing complexes. They belong to those factors that, during the preparatory phase of design, are subjected to analysis equally to legal and technical conditions. We are used to treating them as elements that fill up recreational spaces that accompany residential areas. Since modernist times we have strived to regain a type of direct access to nature that is distinct of the primal form of settlement, with the intent of creating an aesthetic unity between architecture and nature. In the latest built housing complexes we can observe additional tendencies associated with the presence of natural composition elements within the housing environment. Among these we can mention an improvement in the quality of housing conditions by providing attractive areas for active and pas­sive recreation. Another area in which the use of natural compositional elements is developing is the bioclimatic performance of a building. We are increasingly often discussing the subject of the sensory qualities of space, in addition to the therapeutic value of backyard spaces in the everyday maintenance of the fitness of residents, the necessity of which is associated with demographic changes, as well as harmful lifestyles that lead to obesity in children and adolescents. The article discusses the manners of the utilisation and significance of water and greenery in contemporary housing complexes.

The article presents a model of cooperation between the university and the non-government organization, shows the aim, character and rules of this kind of interaction. The article presents efecst of students‘ work led by their teachers. This work is an attempt to show the mutual benefits of synergies and final effects of the university – foundation – self-government – human – business model.

The urge for the sustainable character of buildings, resulting from the search for a contemporary relation between architecture and nature as well as attention to natural resources, has influenced the image of today’s human living environment. More and more frequently, such natural elements as water or greenery are applied in the composition of structures or architectural and urban enclosures. The application of these elements usually results from their technical and functional values – the ability to accumulate energy, to support the preservation of native ecosystems, to purify water, to create the microclimate of an enclosure, to convert carbon dioxide etc. Owing to some rediscovered building materials, however, their appearance produces a brand new image of architecture bound with the surroundings. The architecture-nature relationship does not only proceed at the meeting point of a building and its surroundings anymore. Structures form a landscape with respect for the topography and biological characteristics of a given area, whereas natural elements penetrate into an enclosure producing a kind of an extended entrance zone blurring the borders between a building and its surroundings. At the same time, architecture tries to recreate the relationship between Man and Nature making a favourable environment meant for residence, work and recreation introducing a new aesthetical and social dimension within the architecture-nature relation.