Polish Architectural Magazines ( 1945-1989 )

Despite being very extensive, the literature that discusses Polish town planning and architecture, especially that of the post-war years is fragmentary and incomplete, i.e. there are no synthetic studies of this period and the materials are dispersed. During the time in question, over a dozen magazines were published that focused, to a lesser or greater extent, on matters related to urban planning and architecture. e rst architectural magazines in communist Poland were printed soon after World War II, in 1947.1 eir contribution to the recording of spatial phenomena in the People’s Republic of Poland [Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, abbreviated as PRL], to the presentation of theoretical approaches and professional discussions, as well as to architectural education is of great and undeniable importance.

"And today, barely two years since we recommenced our work, we can already be aware of the path that history is laying out before Polish architecture.erefore, it is good and it is right to attempt to de ne the role which has fallen to our architectural generation."4e rst editor in chief was an architect, Tadeusz Filipczak, who worked with a vast editorial sta of some of the most outstanding architects in Poland. 5 the beginning, the journal focused, to a major extent, on matters concerning the post-war reconstruction, but also wrote about competitions and the designing of the most important buildings erected in Poland at the time, for example the Ministry of State Treasury, the Central Statistical O ce or the seat of the socialist party.It should be noted that, over the years, the form and contents of the publication underwent some considerable changes regarding its structure, layout and artwork.ese transformations resulted, to a vast degree, from the changes in the social atmosphere marked by several turning points in the history of the PRL. 6From 1956, which saw the end of socialist realism in Polish architecture and placed the power in the hands of a new government, the magazine's orientation changed signi cantly by opening up to the achievements and experience of architects not only from the Eastern Bloc, but also from Western Europe and America. 7A series of texts appeared presenting the latest architectural works in the West, for instance in Sweden, Germany, the USA and the UK.Architektura became an important source of information about the latest trends and realisations, featuring numerous descriptions and examples, for instance descriptions of the national pavilions at the Brussels World's Fair, EXPO 1958.It also included reprints of texts and artwork from foreign magazines like Baumeister and Bauwelt, as well as Italian, British and American publications.e 1960s were a time when Architektura clearly embraced new trends, especially modern architecture, despite the texts being imbued, to some extent, with the propaganda of success.Sections of the magazine were dedicated to the latest realisations, architectural competition results, interior architecture, theory, history and educational issues.ese were accompanied by student columns and presentations, as well as an international review focusing on projects from across the world, both from the East and from the West.ere were also interviews, discussions, architectural book reviews and texts about the new construction technology with an emphasis on industrialised construction and prefabrication.
In the 1970s Architektura started displaying a clearly de ned structure and layout.In terms of contents it continued with presentations of projects and realisations, trends, historical research and student columns.An analysis of these contents clearly reveals veiled criticism of the weakness of centrally controlled economy and of the shortcomings of the technology and urban planning solutions used in Poland.Concurrently, the magazine became a nationwide forum for showcasing new designs, concepts, town planning solutions and competition projects.More room was also given to international experience and realisations, especially European ones, whilst articles regarding historical and theoretical research strongly in uenced the development of the then prevailing architectural philosophy and practice.is trend continued into the 1980s.e beginning of the decade was marked by yet another historical milestone in Poland, i.e. the emerging of the Solidarity movement.8e general euphoria that accompanied those times was not without e ect on the contents published in Architektura.e magazine gained greater independence and gradually detached itself from the o cial state and the policy of the socialist party9 .It started featuring texts that criticised the achievements of the previous decades, the dictate of prefabrication and town planning focused on large housing developments as well as the decline of construction craftsmanship.10 e martial law, introduced in Poland in December 1981, coincided with a deteriorating economic situation, which caused a standstill in almost all activities of construction development.As far as Architektura was concerned, this had a direct e ect on its contents.ese focused primarily on very valuable theoretical re ections by Polish and international authors, on historical research (relating mainly to the 19 th century and also to earlier times) and on professional discussions, as well as on presentations of architectural projects and competitions (albeit it must be stressed that the former were in the minority in relation to the latter).By now, both the texts and the discussions were in evident opposition to the o cial stance of the state and party authorities.
It should be noted that Architektura was not a comprehensive review of the entire architectural production in Poland.Neither was it a propaganda vehicle for the authorities.Its goal was to in uence a speci c independent architectural policy orientated towards presenting valuable and modern solutions.e presented cases were to describe reality, but also to provide a point of reference for new explorations.In its time, Architektura was quite an extraordinary construct due to its wide range of topics and the aforementioned independence, which made it possible to present international works and to not restrict them to socialist countries.Of course, it did not gain major popularity among foreign readers, with the exception of those from the Soviet Bloc, where it had numerous subscribers interested in publications with more extensive information on international architecture than those in their own countries.11e subject matter that Architektura dealt with was very wide.From the very beginning it provided a forum for the presentation of urban development plans, the most interesting achievements and competition projects.SARP's clever skilful policy towards the communist authorities provided it with a degree of autonomy, which later on turned into an actual contestation of the o cial party line.In 1967, in a survey of architecture in the rst two decades of the PRL, Adam Kotarbiński noted: " e monthly, which depends, to a considerable extent, on the general situation in architecture, has been a re ection of the in uences that o cially prevailed in the professional milieu.Nonetheless, due to the high diversity of this milieu regarding the scope of work, interests and approaches to contemporary architecture, it could never adapt to its divergent requirements and continues to give rise to far-reaching reservations."12Despite this negative opinion and other strongly varied ones, Architektura, at present, is one of the most important iconographic and historical sources of information about planned projects and achievements.Furthermore, the consecutive numbers convey an image of how designs were created, how architects were educated and how technology evolved, in addition to the political and social climate, legal conditions and problems that architects had to deal with.Architektura was the place where they could publish their appeals and manifestos as well as papers on history of architecture, including the most recent one. 13art from being a patron to Architektura, SARP also issued a monthly in-house newsletter called Komunikat SARP [SARP Communiqué], which mainly dealt with topics submitted by its members.In the 1980s, this was succeeded by Zeszyty Architektury Polskiej [Journals of Polish Architecture], which constituted a forum for the presenting of projects, competitions and theoretical re ections.Both are signi cant sources of information despite being restricted to that regarding the SARP members only. .It aimed at being the rst magazine to ll the gap in publications regarding town planning and municipal and housing management.In its publishing programme announcement it identi ed three major themes: urban planning (mainly studies on the socialist city), municipal management and housing policy.Miasto intended to play an important role in developing and propagating the method of socialist realism in town planning, based on the Soviet experience. 15Later on, the views presented in the magazine evolved towards more objective ones, which were, nonetheless, tinted with socialist ideology.Miasto was the only periodical dedicated to spatial and urban planning.From the very beginning it focused on presenting the latest trends and achievements in these elds.At the same time, it was to "contribute to the deepening of studies on the nature of the socialist city and to make readers familiar with all the components that constitute the whole of municipal management." 16n a summary of the rst twelve issues of the magazine, Bronisław Malisz concluded that just the fact that it was being published proved that a certain type of inertia had been overcome in this eld of periodical publications. 17Miasto aimed to make local authorities familiar with the new trends in Polish town planning.However, one must remember that it was founded when Stalinism was at its prime in Poland and that its intention was to promote the principles and ideas of socialist town planning, in addition to a planned abandoning of the hitherto accepted notions of towns and settlements.Apart from regular thematic reviews, every issue presented examples of urban planning from socialist and western countries, albeit the latter were shown from a very critical perspective. 18A vast majority of the texts published before 1956 were imbued with ideological propaganda and, apart from their artwork and historical information, they constitute an unreliable of knowledge about town planning.
After 1956, Miasto's ideological orientation evolved towards the statutory problems of the Association of Polish Urban Planners, and of the Housing Council [Polish: Rada ds.Mieszkaniowych] as well.In the late 1980s, the published texts often challenged the publisher's o cial stance and it was stressed in the imprint that "the views published in Miasto will not always be compatible with the opinions of the Association of Polish Urban Planners". 19Miasto, in its later form, is undoubtedly a good source of information about its times and about the large urban planning projects undertaken in Poland's major cities.During the discussed period, another major periodical, Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki [Quarterly of Architecture and Urban Planning, abbreviated as KAiU] played an entirely di erent role.Published since 1956 by the Polish Academy of Sciences [Polish: Polska Akademia Nauk, abbreviated as PAN], or more speci cally by the PAN Committee on Architecture and Urban Planning, and addressed to academic circles, it was intended, at the time of its founding, to complement the research activities of the PAN Institute of the History and eory of Architecture and Urban Planning.It was also meant to become a publishing centre for authors writing about architecture and town planning.In the foreword to the rst issue, Professor Jan Zachwatowicz wrote that the magazine would deal with a large range of issues, including history and theory of architecture and urban planning, methodology and classi cation, principles of spatial development, architectural and urban composition, as well as correlations between economics, technology and form in architectural and urban planning solutions, assessment criteria, architectural education and terminology. 20vast majority of subjects undertaken by KAiU focused on chronologically earlier issues, i.e. the period from the late 19 th century.As a rule, in the issues before 1975, topics pertaining to contemporary architecture were mentioned only incidentally, usually in reports from international scienti c conferences.Many of these texts referred to the reconstruction of historic town centres and were related to the international conference Rozwój współczesnego miasta a problem jego ośrodka historycznego [ e Development of the Contemporary City and the Problem of its Historic Centre], which was held in Warsaw in 1956.21 Undoubtedly, this must have been related to the de nition of "historic monuments" and "modern works of architecture" which, at the time, only started to include buildings erected before 1939.22 e pro le of the magazine may have, in part, been in uenced by the research interests of its long-term editor-in-chief, Professor Jan Zachwatowicz whose work, despite spanning a very long period of time, paid little attention to contemporary problems.e rst texts that focused on the most recent architecture began appearing in KAiU after 1980.One of the rst extensive articles of this type was dedicated to the question of housing in the Soviet Union and Austria, and to social realism in Polish post-war architecture.23 Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki remains one of the most important Polish scienti c magazines dedicated to the theory and history of architecture, despite the fact that the rst texts which dealt with contemporary issues in a systematic way did not appear therein until the early 21 st century.Nonetheless, the research devices used by the authors determine the exceptional value of its issues.
Another title worth mentioning in the context of this paper is Stolica [Capital City], issued between 1946 and 1989 in Warsaw. 24It was an illustrated weekly magazine and a speci c phenomenon, being entirely dedicated to one city.e rst publisher was the Supreme Council for the Reconstruction of Warsaw [Polish: Naczelna Rada Odbudowy Warszawy] and, from 1955, the publisher RSW "Prasa" (followed by Prasa-Książka-Ruch). Stolica contained numerous texts about the history and culture of Warsaw, in addition to recording the major events of the times (in a special section called "Notatnik Warszawski" [ e Warsaw Notebook]).It also organised various social campaigns25 and featured reminiscences of people connected with the city.Stolica remains an important source of information about the architecture and spatial issues of Warsaw.Similar subjects were undertaken by other titles, for instance Życie Warszawy [Warsaw Life] or Ekspres Wieczorny [Evening Express], albeit their publications displayed more traits of opinion journalism.Topics related to architecture and urban planning were also presented by such opinion-forming magazines as Przegląd Kulturalny [Cultural Review] (published in the years 1953-1963), Kultura [Culture] and Polityka [Politics], as well as regional or local magazines, for instance Kronika Miasta Poznania [Chronicle of the City of Poznań], Kronika Bydgoska [Bydgoszcz Chronicle] and Odra. 26list of titles that dealt with architecture and construction was much wider.In the PRL period, numerous professional newsletters were published, for example the monthly Biuletyn Informacyjny  29 .Published from 1956, it was a bimonthly dedicated, in general, to visual arts and design.e latter did, however, include widely-perceived architectural and spatial phenomena, especially those of high artistic appeal, for example the theoretical works and designs of Oskar Hansen's, monumental sculpture or outstanding architectural complexes.
It is also necessary to mention the challenges that accompanied the work of editors and contributors.In the times of planned economy, the regular issuing of magazines was very di cult owing to factors like paper shortages, the publishers' organisational problems or censorship.Nonetheless, it seems that the authorities may have treated the (controlled) autonomy achieved by some of the writers as a vent which provided a plane for theoretical studies and presentations that channelled the need to mark one's presence in social space.It may be assumed that, due to the strictly professional pro le of the architectural and town-planning magazines, the work of censors did not determine their ultimate form and contents.
As mentioned before, the list of press titles that were available in the market is far more extensive, but not all of them are of value to research on the architecture of the second half of the 20 th century. 30e major magazines of established renown that published high quality contributions are an invaluable source of information, especially because access to original archives and sources is greatly impeded due to their great dispersion and incompleteness, as well as the fact that many archives were seriously damaged in the early 1990s.erefore, it is extremely important that it is possible to learn about original design concepts, professional discussions, writings and major realisations from the communist period 31 from the professional magazines that were published at the time, providing architecture historians with extremely helpful tools and resources.
[Newsletter] of the Committee for Urban Panning and Architecture [Polish: Komitet ds.Urbanistyki i Architektury], 27 published from 1956 to 1964.It presented an extensive image of the operations of the architectural and construction services and the central departments.Large state-owned design studios, various unions and creative associations also published their own newsletters.ere were also several magazines that dealt with the history of architecture, for instance Biuletyn Historii Sztuki [History of Art Newsletter], Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej [Quarterly of the History of Material Culture], Ochrona Zabytków [Preservation of Historic Monuments] or Przegląd Zachodni [Western Review].Nonetheless, the limited number of texts dedicated to post-war architecture published therein reduces their signi cance as an important research source.On the other hand, scienti c magazines published by the various schools of architecture 28 are a useful enhancement to the information provided by the major titles.Another interesting publication is the artistic magazine Projekt [Design]