The Association of Friends of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte offers an annual award for early career research in the history of architecture. The purpose of this award, named after the architect Theodor Fischer (1862-1938), is to encourage younger scholars to bring the results of their work to the attention of a broader public. The winning candidate, chosen by an independent committee of scholars, receives €7,000 and is invited to spend three months conducting research at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich.

Adam Przywara, postdoctoral researcher at the Social Anthropology Unit, is a recipient of the Theodor Fischer Award 2024 for his PhD thesis titled “The Materiality of Ruins: Rubble, Salvaged Bricks, and Waste Aggregates in the Postwar Socialist Reconstruction of Warsaw”. The prize will be presented during the ceremony taking place on 10 July 2024 and celebrated with a lecture by Vendula Hnídková titled: “Prag: Housing for a New Social Order: Czechoslovak Urban Visions between Humankind and Social Segregation”

The awarded thesis has been written under the supervision of Prof. Lukasz Stanek and Dr. Kim Förster at the Department of Architecture, University of Manchester. It was defended in December 2022 before the committee of reviewers including Prof. Daniel Abramson and Dr. Matthew Wells.

Thesis Abstract

The thesis investigates the materiality of ruins in the postwar history of Warsaw, developing an original approach to nature in architectural history. The resulting account traces the metabolism of ruins unfolding during the reconstruction of Warsaw in the aftermath of World War II. The argument follows the process of material transformation of rubble, i.e., how inhabitants, workers, architects, engineers, and politicians reshaped the ruins left within the city in the wake of German occupation. Simultaneously, it underscores the corresponding process of socialisation of rubble, i.e., how the transformative encounter with postwar ruins shaped the socialist reconstruction effort in the postwar decades. Engaging a wide array of original archival sources, the subsequent chapters show how the architectural profession, the socialist construction industry, and transnational networks of engineering expertise were organised around the practice of building with rubble. Each chapter also demonstrates how the use of rubble fostered a distinct expressivity of architecture and landscape in postwar Warsaw. The resulting narrative introduces rubble, salvaged bricks, and waste aggregates as key materials and historical categories for understanding the postwar socialist reconstruction of Warsaw and the underlying relationship between architecture and nature.

Bio

Adam Przywara is an architectural historian and curator whose work investigates ruined built environments, with a particular focus on building material reuse, recycling, and wasting in historical and contemporary architecture. He studied architectural history at the Bartlett, UCL, and completed his doctorate in architecture at the University of Manchester. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the Social Anthropology Unit at the University of Fribourg. Adam was a fellow at the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau (2018), and the German Historical Institute in Warsaw (2020). He has curated numerous architecture history exhibitions, most notably 'Rising from Rubble: Warsaw 1945-1949' at the Museum of Warsaw (2023).

Photo: International volunteers salvaging bricks in the ruins of Warsaw, 1948. Military Press Agency, National Digital Archive, Poland. (Creative Commons CC0 License)

Links:

Festvortrag: https://www.zikg.eu/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/2024/vortrag-vendula-hnidkova

Theodor-Fischer-Preis: https://www.zikg.eu/fellowships/internationale-foerderpreise/theodor-fischer-preis