Monuments are the result of the work of architects – master builders of past centuries. We accept, admire, almost worship their work. We do not judge it in aesthetic, functional or economic terms. They are monuments, after all! They are reminders of history. And history is a wheel that, rolling through the centuries, leaves wonderful things, eliminates bad things and changes others. It is only the coexistence of contemporary architecture, architecture from a century ago and architecture from centuries ago, the architecture of different origins, architecture in which the creators have managed to conceal their contemporary time, that constitutes its true value. How will future generations – in 100, 200, 300 years – judge our architecture? Probably the way we today judge architecture from 100, 200, 300 years ago. And they too will claim that history is over and that now there is only the present.
Piotr Koziej
Piotr Koziej (born 1957), architect, graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Gdańsk University of Technology. Also studied at the Marseille-Luminy School of Art and Architecture, as a part of Certificate of Advanced Studies in Architecture “Architecture et Nouvelles Technologies” in Marseille, France. He worked at the Monuments Conservation Workshop in Toruń, as well as at the “Atelier Citadelle Casbah d’Alger” in Algeria, where he participated in the project to restore the historic complex of the citadel in Algiers. In 1991, he founded his Design Studio. He designs, trying to combine historical form with contemporary form and function. He is the author of the revitalisation of many of Toruń’s buildings in the Old and New Town. Objects designed by him have won distinctions and awards in the ‘Object of the Year’ competition in Toruń. For many years he was the President of the Toruń Branch of the Association of Polish Architects SARP, within which he currently serves as Chairman of the Competition Jury. He is also a member of the Provincial Urban Planning and Architectural Commission at the Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region.
Online lecture, broadcast: 24.03.2021–24.04.2021
