In a café on napkins, in his studio on tracing paper, at home on a piece of paper torn from a notebook. With a pencil, pen, and marker. Kazimierz Maciej Piechotka drew for pleasure and to collect his thoughts. The architect's sketches lay in a drawer for years, but now 200 of them can be admired at an exhibition in Warsaw's Bielany district.
Kazimierz Maciej Piechotka was a fundamental figure for the Bielany district. Along with his wife Maria, also an architect, they designed the largest housing estates after the war: Bielany I, Bielany II, and Bielany III, as well as Słodowiec and Aleja Zjednoczenia.
A part of the first estate, located on Skalbmierska Street, is still unofficially called Piechotkowo. The exhibition "Kazimierz Maciej Piechotka. Sketches from the Drawer" is held at Miejsce Aktywności Lokalnej (MAL) at Kasprowicza 14, in a building also designed by the Piechotkas.
From the bottom of a drawer
The architect never boasted about his works. He carefully hid them at the bottom of a drawer. In 2008, at the encouragement of his wife Maria, a selection of his drawings was presented for the first time at an exhibition organized by the Association of Polish Architects (SARP), on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Piechotkas' architectural work. After several years, there is another opportunity to view these works. The selection of drawings was made by the couple's son, Michał.
As announced by the organizers, the exhibition features nearly 200 works divided into several themes, such as Bielany, architecture, plants, abstraction, and landscapes. The opening took place on Wednesday, November 6, with special guests present: Michał Piechotka and Katarzyna Madoń-Mitzner, the lead editor of the book Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka: Memoirs of Architects, and Edyta Barucka, an art historian and one of the first people whom the Piechotkas showed their drawings.
The exhibition will be open until December 20.
Who was Kazimierz Maciej Piechotka?
Kazimierz Maciej Piechotka graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, completing part of his studies during the occupation as part of underground classes. He was a soldier in the Home Army and a participant in the Warsaw Uprising (Agaton Platoon, Pięść Battalion).
From 1949, together with his wife Maria, he worked as an authorial partnership, focusing primarily on residential architecture. They employed prefabrication systems and documented wooden Jewish architecture (synagogues and prayer houses) for many years. They spent their entire lives living in Bielany.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvnwarszawa.pl
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Zbiory rodziny Piechotków / mat. organizatora