Professor Stanislaw Latour, an outstanding architect, researcher, and teacher of several generations, died on 20 October 2007. He was held in high regard not only for concrete conservation accomplishments but also for his exceptional personality: courage, modesty, 'joie de vivre', and the urge to render help to others. A graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw Universiry of Technology (1952), he devoted the majority of his professional life to the protection and documentation of the cultural heritage of Szczecin and the Western Territories. During the 1950s he organised in Szczecin the first project studio of the State Enterprise Ateliers for the Conservation of Historical Monuments and played a prominent part in the reconstruction of the Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes. His conservation achievements include i. a. the cathedral of St. James the Apostle in Szczecin and the adjoining Vicarage, the church of St. John the Evangelist, and the Podzamcze quarter as well as the preservation, renovation and modernisation of small towns in Western Pomerania. St. Latour also designed new buildings such as the residential-catechesis complex next to the church of St. John the Evangelist or the sacral complex of St. John Bosco. For over thirty years he was connected with the Technical University of Szczecin, where he performed assorted duties, including that of Pro-Rector. A member of numerous organisations and institutions i. a. Association of Polish Architects, ICOMOS, as well as an expert for the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Professor Latour was an unquestioned authority for Polish conservators and all people involved in the protection of Polish historical monuments, teaching them how to experience and protect beauty and how to speak about it.
W artykule podkreślono istotną i niezastąpioną rolę szkicowania w procesie twórczym. Szkice są z jednej strony rozmową wewnętrzną autora w tym procesie, w którym ciągle weryfikuje on i dokonuje poprawek w swoim rozumowaniu. Z drugiej strony rysunki odręczne są także formą dialogu z rzeczywistością, dają możliwość jej głębszego badania i odkrywania. Im więcej doświadczenia ma za sobą rysownik, tym bardziej swobodnie i twórczo podchodzi do zadania projektowego. Są one pomocne w procesach twórczych, które są nieprzewidywalne i potrzebne szczególnie wtedy, gdy wyobrażenie w myśli nie wystarcza do rozwiązania problemu lub jeśli łatwiejsze jest rozwinięcie pomysłu przez czynność „zewnętrzną” rysowania (proces restrukturyzacji – tworzenia analogii, mutacji i kombinacji form przez szkicowanie). Przez to, że w procesie kształcenia przyszłych architektów rysuje się teraz mniej niż dawniej, z większą trudnością studenci rozwijają umiejętność twórczego „myślenia na papierze”. W nauczaniu umiejętności plastycznych wspomagających proces twórczy przyszłych architektów ważne jest, aby każdy z nich poszukiwał indywidualnego spojrzenia i wyłamywał się ze stereotypów. W artykule wykorzystano metodę obserwacyjną opartą na wieloletnim doświadczeniu pedagogicznym w pracy ze studentami.
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The significant and indispensable role of sketching in a creative process is emphasizes in the paper. Within this process, sketches represent an internal conversation that takes place inside the author’s mind and involves ongoing verification and adjustments to the author’s way of thinking. On the other hand, freehand drawing is a form of a dialogue with reality, and offers an opportunity for its exploration and discovery. Thanks to a certain degree of unpredictability inherent to sketching, sketches are indispensable in the creative process. They prove to be particularly useful when ideation turns out to be insufficient or when a problem is more likely to be solved by “externalising” the thinking (the process of restructuring – creating an analogy, mutation and combination of forms by sketching). Due to the fact that education of future architects today focuses on drawing less than in the past, students find it increasingly more difficult to develop their skill of creative “thinking on paper”. Meanwhile when teaching future architects the artistic skills that support the creative process, it is important that each of them seek their individual perspective and strive to go out of the box, challenging stereotypes. Methods discussed in the article include observation based on the vast teaching experience in the academic context.
The complex of buildings in 20 Dworcowa Street in Szczecin, built in 1874, is the oldest preserved example of nineteenth-century post office architecture, conceived in the spirit of the idea expounded by Heinrich von Stephan, creator of the World Post Office Union. For more than a hundred and twenty five years, the object functioned uninterruptedly as a post office, confirming the aptness of the architectonic solutions accepted by the original designers: Carl Schwatlo and Karl Friedrich Endell. The building, granted a static and well balanced composition of monochromatic facades, disclosed an unexpectedly light interior. The original solutions of the outfitting resorted to material and technologies typical for the nineteenth century, and the accepted colours rendered possible an excellent display of the construction against the background of harmonious wall divisions. The renovation of the main hall was completed in 1995, restoring after several decades the initial scale and decorations of the most representative interior of the complex. The range of the investment consisted of removing the suspended ceiling, added in the post-war period, reconstructing part of the details, and a meticulous conservation of the whole object, especially two glass skylights and the supporting construction. The introduced modern elements of the technology do not compete with the historical assets. The conservation was conducted parallel with the modernisation of the post office, and thus required the close co-operation of the conservators and designers.
Recently it has become customary to describe street surfaces as their 'fourth dimension', 'floor' or 'horizontal elevation'. These terms testify to the growing role played by this particular element of town outfitting which for years has been forgotten and treated in a purely utilitarian manner associated solely with communication: street traffic and pedestrians. The very nature of the streets depended on their geographic location and changed with the progress of civilisation and the expansion of human adobes. The most popular form of historical nineteenth century surfaces was stone - the heritage of the experiences and tradition of the industrialization epoch. Originally, use was made of the so-called wild pavement, i. e. cobblestones which have survived mainly in the outskirts and small towns. Larger centres tried to grant their streets a more refined appearance by resorting to dressed stone and differentiated paving. Not until the 1980s did certain environments perceive street paving as an element of valuable historical development. The state of the preservation of historical pavements and streets in Szczecin has been examined in the course of two inventories carried out in 1999 and 2004, verifying the universal opinion about their unsatisfactory technical state and predominantly disclosing the enormous and variegated resources (project, material and aesthetic).
A Polish-German debate on joint heritage in Pomerania was held on 13 September 2007 at the seat of the Representation of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) in Berlin. Representatives of Polish and German self-governments, cultural institutions, owners and administrators of historical monuments, and conservation services attended the meeting. The participants talked about transborder cooperation relating to culture, the protection of cultural heritage, and tourism. They also assessed the promotion of the undertaken ventures and the availability of pertinent information. Finally, the speakers stressed the possibility of enhancing tourism attractiveness by disseminating information about the historical monuments located in the titular region. The debate accompanied the opening of an exhibition on “Castles and residences in Pomerania” which was one of the outcomes of a Polish-German project on “The past and present of castles and residences in Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern”, On 11 September 2007 a meeting on continuing the project as part of the European programmes for 2007-2013 was held at the Castle of the Dukes of Pomerania in Szczecin, testifying to the indubitable success of the initiative from 2005.
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