ARCHITEKTKI
Architektki* is a project where the past meets the future. It’s a story about women who, by designing the world around us, influence how we perceive it.
*Architektki (pronounced: [arxiˈtɛktki]) stands for women architects in Polish.
Five duos, consisting of renowned Warsaw architects and five creators from the younger generation, created works interpreting the achievements of selected designers from earlier generations.
Do gender and location determine how we perceive the space around us? Is there a certain intergenerational continuity in the work of female architects working in our city?
The exhibition is about sharing knowledge, experience, and caring for space and the environment. This idea also guided the design and production of the exhibition, which was created almost entirely from recycled materials.
THE ATLAS OF WARSAW WOMEN ARCHITECTS
The Atlas of Warsaw Women Architects presents the achievements of 41 female architects born before 1939, whose work can still be seen in the city. The biographies of these women are as varied as the buildings they designed – from modernist housing estates, through public institution buildings, to landscaping and recreational facilities. Their projects co-created the urban space in the 20th century, introducing innovative solutions and adapting the architecture to the changing needs of the inhabitants.
- Project selection: Anna Cymer
- Query: Anna Cymer, Artur Wosz, Miłosz Janczarski
- Contemporary photos: Artur Wosz
SEE THE ATLAS OF WARSAW WOMEN ARCHITECTS
THE VOICES OF THE OLDER GENERATION
Interviews with five exceptional women architects: Barbara Kaliszewska, Teresa Kelm, Ewa Kuryłowicz, Maria Sołtys and Magdalena Staniszkis, present portraits of women who studied in the 1960s and 1970s and whose professional lives developed in very different fields of architecture.
How did relations between men and women evolve in their environment? Did they have female mentors as students and budding designers? How did they struggle for recognition in the profession and what advice do they have for their younger female colleagues?
- born 1939
Architect, graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at Warsaw University of Technology. Designer of the Śródmiejski Passage within the team of Prof. Zbigniew Karpiński, responsible for the design of Warsaw’s Eastern Wall. Co-founder of KANA Architectural Studio, which has created projects such as Dom Dochodowy at Trzech Krzyży Square, Opera Residence and numerous residential complexes, apartment buildings and single-family houses.
- born 1941
Interior designer, graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. After graduating, she took up artistic activities, designing interiors, exhibitions and set design. During martial law she went to Algeria as a lecturer, where she became interested in the local culture and architecture. Upon her return to Poland, she took up a job at the Faculty of Architecture at Warsaw University of Technology, where she researched the subject of pro-ecological architecture and raw earth construction.
- born 1953
Architect, PhD Eng., Associate Professor. Graduate and professor at the Faculty of Architecture at Warsaw University of Technology from 1977 to 2022, head of the Department of Architecture Theory and Design. For many years vice-president and general designer at Kuryłowicz+Architekci studio. Responsible for such projects as the Faculty of Applied Linguistics and Neophilology at the University of Warsaw, the new pavilion of the Polish H. Arctowski Station in Antarctica and many others. Honoured, among others, with the Honorary Award of the Association of Polish Architects SARP 2021 and the ‘Bene Merentibus’ medal. Chairperson of the Stefan Kuryłowicz Foundation Council.
- born 1945
Architect and urban planner, graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at Gdańsk University of Technology, academic teacher and professor at the Faculty of Architecture at Warsaw University of Technology. Author of numerous plans and urban and architectural projects ranging from single-family houses to office buildings and public utility buildings, e.g. Rodan Systems in Warsaw and the Little Prince’s House Hospice for Children in Lublin. Author of publications on sustainable urban development. Member of expert committees, authorities of associations and professional chambers.
- born 1954
Architect, graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology. Member of the Association of Polish Architects SARP. In 2000-2016, secretary of the Commission for the Preservation of the Heritage of Warsaw’s 20th Century Architecture and Urbanism, appointed by the Board of the Warsaw Branch of SARP. Collaborates with the Warsaw Museum’s Centre for Interpretation of Monuments, curators of the Warsaw Under Construction Festival, the Museum of Modern Art and the History Meeting House. She popularises the issues of Warsaw architecture and urban planning by recalling the profiles of its creators, because ‘SARP is People’.
THE VOICES OF THE YOUNGER GENERATION
The future of architecture belongs to women. At architecture faculties women now make up the majority of students.
The sound installation is the voice of female architecture students who volunteered to participate in the Architektki project. Each of them expressed themselves by completing two sentences: “In the future, I would like architecture to…” and “In the future, as a women architect, I would like to...”. Their voices show new perspectives and visions that will define architecture in the years to come.
Participants:
Zuzanna Baran, Hanna Batyńska, Aleksandra Boszke, Julia Broszkiewicz, Angelika Brzóska, Anna Halek, Nina Kempa, Wiktoria Kolaszyńska, Zuzanna Kubala, Magdalena Niewczas, Katarzyna Owczarska, Oliwia Pakuszewska, Julia Pakuszewska, Natalia Piestrzyńska, Zuzanna Piwek, Kaja Strzemiecka, Alicja Sutkowska, Aleksandra Wichowska
- 18.07.2025 (18:00)
We would like every person leaving the exhibition to take away something more than just aesthetic impressions:
- an awareness that architecture created by women was and still is an important part of the landscape, although not always properly recognised; we would like visitors to discover stories that have hitherto remained in the shadows, and to feel a desire to explore them further;
- a sense of continuity and the importance of intergenerational relationships; we show how important it is to talk, learn from each other and pass on knowledge;
- a reflection on the future of architecture. What role can empathy, social responsibility, and sustainability play? Can young voices and diverse perspectives change the profession, its values, and even the way our cities develop? ;
- the courage to create in your own way, drawing on both the experience of others and your own intuition.
Architektki is more than just a story about architecture. It is a story about relationships, responsibility, and imagination.
- 12.07.2025 (11:00)
Our relationship with the Vistula has rarely been based on reciprocity. In literature – a queen, a protector, a mother. In reality – a polluted, ailing servant. We draw water, energy, and refreshment from it, and we repay it by dumping sewage or imposing a concrete corset in the form of regulating the riverbed. Is this how we should treat someone who gives us so much?
The wreath is a gesture towards the Vistula, a nod to its subjectivity. It is a small gift to a living being that deserves respect. Woven from aquatic plant seedlings beneficial to its ecosystem, it is not only a symbol but also a practical aid. It is a mutual ritual of closeness. For us, it is a celebration of presence, and for the Vistula, it is recreatio – a chance for renewal.
