Helena Syrkus (May 14, 1900 – November 19, 1982) was a Polish architect, urban planner and educator. She was born Helena Eliasberg in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and studied architecture at the Warsaw Technical Academy from 1918 to 1923. In 1922, she changed her last name to Niemirowska. Syrkus also studied drawing with

Roman Kramsztyk Roman Kramsztyk (18 August 1885 – 6 August 1942) was a Polish realist painter of Jewish descent in the interwar period. He was shot dead in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition a ...

and philosophy at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. She was a co-founder of the

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

Praesens Praesens (from Latin: "present tense") was a Polish avant-garde artist and architect collective active in the years 1926-1930, which was formed following the dissolution of Blok. History The founders of the Praesens group included graduates of ...

group. She was also a member of the

Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne The ''Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne'' (CIAM), or International Congresses of Modern Architecture, was an organization founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959, responsible for a series of events and congresses arranged across Europ ...

(CIAM) and served as vice-chairperson from 1945 to 1954. In 1950, she began lecturing on architecture at the Polish Technical Academy. She was an editor of the

Athens Charter The Athens Charter (french: Charte d'Athènes, Greek: Χάρτα των Αθηνών) was a 1933 document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s '' Ville Radieuse'' (Radiant C ...

. She married in 1925. During the 1930s, Syrkus and her husband developed the Na Rakowcu housing project for workers. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she worked on plans for the reconstruction of the city of Warsaw. With her husband, she worked on the Na Kole estate in Warsaw, which housed 10,000 residents, between 1948 and 1952. She became a member of the Polish Workers' Party in 1944 and the Polish United Workers' Party in 1948. Books by Syrkus included ''Ku idei osiedla społecznego'' ("Toward the Idea of the Social Estate") (1976) and ''Społeczne cele urbanizacji'' ("The Social Aims of City Planning") (1984). Syrkus died in Warsaw at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syrkus, Helena 1900 births 1982 deaths Polish women architects Polish urban planners University of Warsaw alumni Polish United Workers' Party members 20th-century Polish women