In Ostrava about the architecture of the Lower Silesian metropolis

OSTRAVA (MSK, i-region.eu) "Wroclaw 20/20" - this is the title of the exhibition presented at the Ostrava Gallery of Fine Arts by the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw. The exhibition features 150 already realized investments and building visions, as well as those that are still being realized, conveyed through the same number of monitors placed in the exhibition areas, which continuously display objects, their locations, and surroundings. The exhibition includes models of representative investments, such as the stadium for EURO 2012 or luxury apartments from Hilton.

The exhibition is a probe documenting the dynamic development and architectural transformation of Wroclaw over the last 20 years, changes in the way of thinking about the functions of this city, the entry of commercial architecture, and the connection of war-destroyed urban construction with spatial solutions. It also expresses an open discussion about what modern Wroclaw should be and how it should present itself. The number twenty in the title represents the number of areas where the mentioned process has manifested to the greatest extent.

It concerns historical buildings that are taking on new functions - for example, the reconstruction and expansion of the building neighboring Max Berg's Centennial Hall, designed by the VROA and CH+ architects, thus giving the historical building both a recreational and conference character. Additionally, there is the reconstruction of the department store "Wertheim" by Hermann Dernburg carried out by the Zbigniew Maćków studio, which received the SARP 2009 Award for the best building realized in 2009 and is also this year's nominee for the European Mies van der Rohe Award, the infill of gaps (e.g. at Grunwald Square in the area of the former airport that served Festung Breslau), and the use of modern forms, both minimalist ("serowiec" nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award) and biomorphic ("blob" Hilton, deviating from the aesthetics of angles). At the exhibition, we can observe the connection of various architectural concepts with modern technologies including steel, glass, and stone, which link the interior with the environment.

"Architectural objects presented at the exhibition should not be evaluated in relation to world results in the field of architecture, but to the possibilities of a short, twenty-year period, during which there has been a fundamental reassessment and the potential that the presented projects hold," Zbigniew Maćków told i-region.eu.

"This potential means a geometric growth in the quality of Wroclaw's architecture. The first realized projects still displayed elements of socialism, but later turned into quality. On this occasion, architects have discovered 'foreign heritage,' as it was either German or socialist - thus considered bad in any case. Only now do we realize that Wroclaw was an architecturally significant city in the 1920s, but also in the 1960s. To paraphrase, I would say that we have played in the top league several times. Now we are rediscovering these architectural gems that fascinate us, and whether we want to or not, we think about them. And they also inspire us.”

Let us add that the exhibition was installed in Wroclaw in June. "This was associated with the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of self-governance in Poland," explains Adam Grehl, the Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw, who was one of the project initiators.

The curators of the Ostrava exhibition version are Tadeusz Goryczka and Jaroslav Němec, along with Michał Duda from the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw. The exhibition, which opened in mid-December and will be open until March 20 of this year, is complemented by a richly illustrated catalog in Czech and Polish versions. It was published by the Architecture Cabinet of the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava. This exhibition is expected to appear in other cities of the Czech Republic this year.

photo: Antonín Dvořák / SPOK