THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ADVISORY BOARD ON THE PROTECTION OF HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF MODERNISTIC ARCHITECTURE IN POLAND

The condition of buildings dating from the modernist period gives rise to increasing anxiety. A breakthrough event was the demolition of the Supersam shop in Warsaw despite universal recognition of its architectural merits. The decision was made at a time when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious institutions associated with architecture in the world, was holding a one-man show of projects by Prof.Waclaw Zalewski, the co-author of the Supersam building. The above-mentioned demolition accentuated the necessity of urgent steps concerning the protection of twentieth-century architecture. This is the reason why Dr. Marcin Gawlicki, director of the National Heritage Board of Poland, set up a team entrusted with the task of preparing rules for the valorisation and protection of architecture from the modernist period. The Polish section of DOCOMOMO (Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement) declared it willingness to cooperate. The first meeting established the course of the team's activity. The prime objective is to be the preparation of a strategy of protecting modernist buildings in Poland, frequently threatened with considerable redesigning or demolition. The most urgent tasks include defining the rules of the documentation of twentieth century buildings and uniform criteria of appraising the worth of modernist architecture, together with a selection of the most valuable edifices from this period in particular parts of the country. The next session will deal with uniform rules of documenting modernist architecture and the criteria of its assessment