Kino Ochota/Och-Teatr

 

@. Grojecka 65

architect. Mieczyslaw Piprek

finished. 1950

After being closed for almost 10 years Kino Ochota was reopened in January of 2010 as Och-Teatr. THe building was leased for 20 years by the owners (MaxFilm) to Krystyna Janda's theater company. The building will be another stage for the very succesful theater. It already has a busy schedule of edgy plays and concerts. And what a great trend that a movie theater is being converted into a stage. Who says theater is dead?

The building was not in great shape and it has had its roof and windows replaced for the opening. It was added to the register of historic landmarks in early 2009 so I hope these renovations were well done. The overall geometry of the building is pleasing, the entrance is its most decorative feature with a delicately angled canopy and a sort of fish-scale sandstone facade detail.

St Jacobs. Swietego Jakuba

Church

@. Grojecka 38
architect. Oskar Sosnowski
finished. 1923

Construction of the church began in 1910 when Ochota was mostly fields and pastures. Today it is considered by many scholars a masterpiece of early Polish modernism for translating a synthesis of romanesque and gothic forms into a modernist vocabulary. It was damaged during WWII and renovations lasted till 1960. The churst is really raw and beautiful due to the exposed brick facades. The representative front, facing Plac Narutowicza, is almost brutalist with its massive bell tower. The interior is a surprise, light and airy. I was expecting an equally medieval interior with dark smokey interiors and gem-colored stained glass windows. Witkacy's designs from Krakow would be a perfect complement. However you will find eiree stained glass compositions depicting the history of the Home Army (AK).

Biblioteka Narodowa/National Polish Library

pic from warszavka i lavinka blog

@. Al. Niepodleglosci 213
archtiect. Stanisław Fijałkowski
finished. 1983 (designed in the 60's)

The history of the National Polish Library reaches back to the 18th century however its contemporary form came into existence in 1928. By the war the library housed an impressive collection of published works and historic manuscripts. Unfortunately much of it was damaged during the war. The historic manuscripts were purposefully destroyed or taken to Germany as a retaliation against the Waraw Uprising, despite specific provisions in the capitulation agreement. Today the library holds millions of volumes in the complex built in the Pole Mokotowskie park as well as in the Krasinski Palace. There are a lot of mixed feelings towards the massive library complex. While it has a cool sixties aesthetic with funky mosiacs, the interior is being taken over by cheap Formica furniture bought in spurts to meet some pressing need. The library also faces a massive storage problem, a new building, designed by the library's architect has been proposed (who knows when it will be built though). The renderings look awful, an office block from a Dallas suburb not an integral element to a modernist national library complex. You be the judge, new book storage.The architect also designed the SGGW campus, the ubiquitous concrete cube seems to be his signature, sigh. Yet again, the library is a cool building, it is has some well thought-out design elements, it is set within the Pole Mokotowskie park, an amazing, natural, forest-like setting, there is so much to work with here!! Yet the library is surrounded by fencing, it feels heavily guarded. It definately hasn't made the leap from communism.

Banacha Market. Hala Banacha

Market

@. Ul. Grojecka 95
architekt. ?
finished. a work in progress

Banacha is a Warsaw classic, one of the places that will soon disapear, there are already plans to domesticate this wild place - a place which is a physical manifestation of the first years of Polish capitalism. I definately recommend a trip here even though it is a sort of non-space, an urban void. I believe it all started from a produce market and has expanded from there to meet the needs of the nieghborhood. You can find anything you might need there just don't count on it being a quick trip, the maze of stands will suck you in for hours.