Dom Meblowy w Gdańsku

Abstrakt

The departure from socialist realism in the late 1950s allowed architects to reach for innovative forms. These included free‑standing pavilions: low, horizontal buildings with extensive glazing. One of them was the former Furniture Showroom in Gdańsk opened in 1961. It was designed by Lech Kadłubowski who might have drawn some inspiration from Vjenceslav Richter’s Pavilion of Yugoslavia at the EXPO ’58 in Brussels, which was known in Poland from trade press publications.

Creating a sharp contrast with the neighbouring historic Highland Gate and the Foregate Complex, the modernist Furniture Showroom seemed to stand in opposition to the surrounding architecture, and yet fit in the urban and historic context thanks to the reference it made to the height of the defensive embankments that had once existed at the location. Due to defects in materials and workmanship as well as its remodelling in the 1970s, the former Furniture Showroom lost its original aesthetic appeal. As a result of economic changes after the political transformation at the end of the 1980s, the low free‑standing pavilion became obsolete as a commercial building. High prices of plots for commercial development and commercial space rental make it profitable to demolish pavilions from the 1960s and 1970s, and replace them with multi‑storeyed buildings. The former Furniture Showroom will likely share this fate.

The situation of the former Furniture Showroom reflects a broader problem: interesting post‑war buildings often fail to be perceived as part of historic heritage by both the general public and preservation experts, because they evoke negative associations with the communist regime in Poland. This leads to the degradation and loss of valuable post-war architecture.