'Moving Architecture' by Robert Konieczny

Description of project by KWK PROMES

We are constantly on the move; we create new scenarios and endow places with all kinds of projects. We live in a mobile environment that involves interactions between bodies and objects. Various models of movement bring about complex relationships that are subject to constant transformations.

In Polish language “a property” [nieruchomość] is a synonym of a building and it literary means “immovability”. Architecture is typically associated with stability and permanence. However, if we choose to perceive architecture as a field of study focused on taming and transforming space, it will turn out that movement is an inherent part of it. A building is delimited and shaped by walls, but its functionality is determined by the space between them. Le Corbusier’s free plan, Mies van der Rohe’s tectonic space, or the theory of open form proposed by Oskar Hansen are examples of modern ideas that view architecture as an area of everyday behaviours and practices. Architecture provides a framework for events and interpersonal relations. The more flexible it is, the more it can be reshaped and the better it responds to the changing needs. If doors and windows can open, if escalators and elevators can help us travel between floors, we could go further and imagine buildings as movable objects. Project that have once been viewed as futuristic, today turn to realizations, also on behalf of the works designed in Robert Konieczny’s studio, KWK PROMES.

In his projects of buildings composed of movable parts, Robert Konieczny follows the idea of transformation of space. In consequence, he creates an open relationship between people and the material world. He designs buildings with movable parts, enabling people to transform the space they live in. KWK PROMES treats space as another material. The studio designs buildings that prove that architecture goes beyond walls, doors, windows and ceilings. Each solution implemented by KWK PROMES is justifiable, functional and resulting from the designing paths investigated by the studio. Speed, time, topography and materiality are the starting point for an exploration of new architectural solutions. As a result, each path leads to an innovative building.

The architecture of KWK PROMES brings together art, architecture and engineering. There is a lot of potential in the use of moving architectural elements. Their presence enables an interaction between people and the building they live in. The residents interact with various architectural elements; the relationship between them transforms, and in turn influences the space they live in and redefines it.

The studio headed by Robert Konieczny doesn’t have one single guiding principle and this defines his philosophy of design. Architects from KWK PROMES represent diversity, a constant exploration of new solutions, courage to start from the beginning. For them, each project is an opportunity to become more open. This way – without the baggage of a strong attachment to own, already implemented, solutions and concepts – emerge new architectural ideas. An unorthodox and critical approach to previously developed solutions is part of the conceptual view of design, characteristic for KWK PROMES studio. As a result, ideas never end. Each idea, even if it has been implemented, can be developed further, continued or transformed. Konieczny constantly improves his projects, which form specific DESIGN PATHS.

The exhibition presents the results of the methodical approach to work with movement and space on the example of a selection of buildings – the recognizable ones and those that contribute to a discussion in the times when the main architectural debate seems to be dominated by critical realism.

The title of the exhibition refers not only to the issue of mobility in Konieczny’s works, but also to our feelings and experiences that arise in response to presented projects – they engage the recipient and force her/him to take a stand. Konieczny is a designer who values ideas, concepts and thoughts more than stylistic preferences or aesthetical games. As a result, KWK PROMES designs and executes a diversity of projects. Their works do not rely on one form – instead, they are a constant search for an “architectural ideal”.