An English curatorial tour of the exhibition devoted to the remarkable architectural duo Maciej and Stanisława Nowicki, led by Kacper Kępiński and Karolina Częczek.
She was a talented graphic artist and designer and the first female professor of architecture in the history of the United States. He collaborated – despite his young age – with renowned architects on prestigious projects whose implementation was interrupted by his tragic death.
Their story is a fascinating tale of creative passion, their life together, and the possibilities and limitations of the turbulent beginning of the 20th century. The dramatic history of their homeland, their lived experiences, but also a great hope for a better future laid the foundation for an innovative curriculum and architectural designs that changed the history of the profession.
By combining the latest building developments with great respect for the local context, their readiness for dialogue and understanding of others, as well as their enormous talent, they created a humanistic modernism that opened the contemporary understanding of architecture to previously unknown realms.
Kacper Kępiński
An architect, exhibition curator, and architecture critic. Deputy Director at the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning. Graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Krakow University of Technology. Regular contributor to the quarterly magazine Autoportret. He co-teaches architectural design classes at the Faculty of Architecture of the Brno University of Technology, focusing on inclusive housing architecture. Curator of exhibitions including “Anthropocene” and “Humanist modernity”.
Karolina Częczek
A principal of Only If—, a New York City-based design practice for architecture. Only If’s projects span a range of different types and scales, from interiors, to single- and multiple-family housing, to larger-scale urban planning, research, and speculation. Only If’s People’s Pool project is part of the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, “Architecture Now: New York, New Publics,” featuring projects that envision a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable New York. Czeczek is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Wirt Winchester Travel Fellowship from Yale School of Architecture. Czeczek previously worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and Hong Kong.