Centrala does not have a constant number of members, neither any order of operation to be routinely followed – it is not a company. More appropriately it should be called a platform where individual quests converge around common goals. It is rather a collective of as many people as a task ahead of them requires.
Architects Malgorzata Kuciewicz (born 1976), Krzysztof Banaszewski (born1973) and Jakub Szczesny (born 1973), constitute Centrala’s core. They co-operated as students of Warsaw Technical University on school projects and have been working together since 2002 with focus on competitions, most of which were awarded prizes. Centrala undertakes actions in many scales ranging from graphics, every-day use objects to furniture, urban objects, interiors, houses, office buildings as well as districts or aglomerations. Most of their designs never leave the studio, however occasionaly, something gets built on their ideas.
Apart from participating in competitions and workshops, Centrala also takes liberty of commenting upon the current state of affairs in Warsaw by means of a series of‚ ‘decoy projects’ published in press.
Urban mistification
The City- on- Vistula plays by its own rules. Tropism of development knows not reverence for transitory creations of minds and hands of the Warsaw inhabitants. Precious buildings get torn down, like those of the Moskwa cinema, pavilion of Chemia or the “Praha ” cinema.
‘Architectural recycling’ is Centrala’s solution: the building of the PKO bank – ‘Rotunda’ – serves here as the example of totem; a fraction of urban space endowed with spiritual significance by Warsawers. In another words: worth saving – there already is a skyscraper designed to take ‘Rotunda’s’ place…
Authors:CENTRALA – Krzysztof Banaszewski , Malgorzata Kuciewicz, Jan Strumillo, Jakub Szczesny
