Face of the façade: stucco renderings in interwar Cracow architecture
Authors:
- Monika Bogdanowska
Abstract
The Modernist architecture of the mid-war era speaks to us through the simple form, colour and texture of buildings’ façades rather than through rich decoration. In this purity, each element had a specific meaning. Smooth walls of cuboids articulated with horizontal fenestration, occasionally enriched with a modest cornice introduced a sense of harmony, peace and organisation into the city skyline, no matter whether it was a streamlined building, or a residence in a garden. For these reasons, one of the most important features of Modernist architecture was the manner in which architectural surfaces were finished and as a result of their relative simplicity, stucco renderings gathered great popularity at the time. In the mid-war period, Cracow experienced exceptional growth: the area of the city expanded from 6 km2 to almost 47 km2 by the beginning of WWII, with most of this development occurring during the Modernist era. It constitutes a valuable architectural resource which should be preserved and restored for its exceptional functional and architectural values. This paper will discuss one of the many issues which have not been widely recognised so far: stucco renderings, which were widely introduced in the discussed period and which constitute an important aspect of the character of Modernist architecture as a such. The text will cover a short discussion of the characteristics of this heritage resource, along with the associated techniques and technology of Modernist stucco, together with difficulties encountered during renovation work.
- Record ID
- CUTc77420e203ab405b92f66e30578759f7
- Publication categories
- ; ;
- Author
- Journal series
- IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, ISSN 1757-8981, e-ISSN 1757-899X, Irregular
- Issue year
- 2019
- Vol
- 471
- Pages
- [1-8]
- Article number
- 112001
- Other elements of collation
- fot.; Bibliografia (na s.) - 8; Bibliografia (liczba pozycji) - 12; Oznaczenie streszczenia - Abstr.; Numeracja w czasopiśmie - Vol. 471
- Substantive notes
- Session 10
- Conference
- 3rd World Multidisciplinary Civil Engineering, Architecture, Urban Planning Symposium (WMCAUS 2018), 2018, 18-06-2018 - 22-06-2018, Prague, Czechy
- Keywords in English
- Modernist architecture, pierre-simili, rendering, stucco
- DOI
- DOI:10.1088/1757-899X/471/11/112001 Opening in a new tab
- URL
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/471/11/112001 Opening in a new tab
- Language
- eng (en) English
- License
- Score (nominal)
- 5
- Additional fields
- Indeksowana w: Web of Science, Scopus
- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://cris.pk.edu.pl/info/article/CUTc77420e203ab405b92f66e30578759f7/
- URN
urn:pkr-prod:CUTc77420e203ab405b92f66e30578759f7
* presented citation count is obtained through Internet information analysis, and it is close to the number calculated by the Publish or PerishOpening in a new tab system.