Jan Kossowski (1898-1958) was a Polish architect and builder, mainly associated with
Bydgoszcz
Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...
. His professional activity spanned from the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
to the 1940s. His artistic style is mainly connected with
Modern Architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
.
Life
Jan Kossowski was born in the estate of Chrzanówka, near
Mogilev
Mogilev (russian: Могилёв, Mogilyov, ; yi, מאָלעוו, Molev, ) or Mahilyow ( be, Магілёў, Mahilioŭ, ) is a city in eastern Belarus, on the Dnieper River, about from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from the bor ...
in the
Podolia
Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...
region (today's
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
) on 13 July 1898. The Kossowski family had his roots in the
voivodeship
A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval ...
of
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
; Franciszek the ancestor was the first Kossowski of the line in the 15th century.
His mother Karolina died when he was 11 years old in 1909 and his father Jan passed away in 1917. The young Jan graduated from Mogilev
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
and from
Vinnytsia
Vinnytsia ( ; uk, Вінниця, ; yi, װיניצע) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug.
It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. A ...
junior school
A Junior school is a type of school which provides primary education to children, often in the age range from 8 and 13, following attendance at Infant school which covers the age range 5–7. (As both Infant and Junior schools are giving Primary E ...
. He then started learning in
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
.
On 27 April 1917 he volunteered for the
Polish I Corps in Russia
Polish I Corps in Russia ( pl, I Korpus Polski w Rosji; russian: 1-й Польский корпус) was a military formation formed on 24 July 1917 in Minsk from Polish and Lithuanian personnel serving in the Western and Northern Fronts of the ...
commanded by the general
Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki
Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki (Iosif Romanovich while in the Russian military; sometimes also Dowbór-Muśnicki; ; 25 October 1867 – 26 October 1937) was a Russian military officer and Polish general, serving with the Imperial Russian and then Poli ...
: injured in June 1918, he was sent home to his family estate. After working two years as an accountant in a
sugar refinery
A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or beets into white refined sugar.
Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more colour (and impurities) than the white ...
in Stepanówce, near Vinnytsia, he joined anew the
Polish army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
in 1920, and participated to the
Battle of Warsaw for which he was decorated.
Still serving in different army units, lived in 1921 in
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
, in 1922-1923, in
Toruń
)''
, image_skyline =
, image_caption =
, image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg
, image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg
, nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town
, pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...
and in May 1923, he moved to
Bydgoszcz
Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...
to be employed as a building draftsman for the District Engineering Management ( pl, Kierownictwo Rejonu Inżynierii i Saperów). Jan Kossowski asked to be transferred from Toruń to Bydgoszcz so as to start learning at the State School of Art Industry. Released from army service at the end of 1923,
he was employed on 1 November 1924 by the architect and engineer Bronisław Jankowski, first as a construction technician, and then from 1928 onwards as the head of Bronisław's office at
Dworcowa Street
Dworcowa Street is one of the main streets of Bydgoszcz, in Downtown district ( pl, Śródmieście). Many of its buildings
are registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List.
Across the street, between Warmia and Marcinkowskiego ...
62, since Bronisław Jankowski moved at the time to Gdynia to co-manage another construction company. From 1925 to 1928, he designed and realized for Jankowski 's firm residential villas on the thriving
Sielanka district. 1933 brought many changes in Kossowski's life: in June, he married Pelagia Brzezińska from Bydgoszcz, but the same year Bronisław Jankowski closed his Bydgoszcz office in 1933, following the economic aftermath of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, and Kossowski's cooperation with the company ended. Jan then set up his own architectural studio in Bydgoszcz, at 6 Chwytowo street, which he moved in 1937 to 24
Kordeckiego street, where he also lived with his family.
Leading his own company, the 1930s were the most prolific period for Kossowski's professional activity. During these times, he designed over 30 tenement houses and villas in downtown district, mainly in the Sielanka and Leśne areas. Some of these buildings stand in
Gdańska Street,
Wolności Square or
Swiętej Trojcy street.
On 23 August 1939 he was enlisted to the army, and was captured on 17 September but managed to escape and returned to Bydgoszcz in mid-November. Demobilized, he initially found a job in a water and sewage installation company owned by engineer Józef Piecek, and subsequently worked in the office of architect Karl Schaum from April 1940 to May 1943:
during this period, he supervised the construction of
arcades at the ground floor of opposite tenements at
2 Jagiellońska street in Bydgoszcz and 2
Focha street. Later, he worked at the Municipal Construction Office (1943-1945).
![Bydgoszcz Pomnik Wolności](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Bydgoszcz_Pomnik_Wolno%C5%9Bci.jpg)
After the liberation, he was appointed by Polish municipal authorities in January 1945, as the head of the ''Urban Planning and Development Department'' and as the city architect. Jan Kossowski maintained for a while his second job in his own architectural office now located at 22
Jagiellońska street, but in 1948, he switched to a full-time position to the benefit of the city affairs in the ''Central Office of Studies and Projects of Industrial Construction''. Many constructions in Bydgoszcz date back to this period, in particular in Gdańska Street,
Słowackiego Street, 3 May street or
Theatre square. For the latter, Kossowski even drafted the project of a new building to replace the
former Municipal Theatre razed in 1945. In June 1953, he submitted a design for the
philharmonic
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...
building; though not endorsed by the selection committee, his concept was pretty close to Stefan Klajbor's one realized in 1954-1958.
Jan Kossowski died on 9 December 1958. He was buried in Bydgoszcz, at the ''Cmentarz Nowofarny''.
Activity
First part of Kossowski's activity extends till 1933: it regards works performed jointly with Bronisław Jankowski. These projects are mainly
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
s, which shapes refer to
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
s with picturesque contours, including
porch
A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...
es supported by
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s.
In 1933, he directed the project aiming at expanding the Regional hospital for children at 44
Chodkiewicza Street.
Kossowski's independent realizations (from 1933 onward) are inspired by
International style, using
expressionist elements composed of simple solids. Subsequent projects, built after the Great Depression, are characterized by richer forms, with more expensive linings and a closer attention to details. In his way, he transplanted the idea of functionalism and
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
's ideas to Bydgoszcz.
After a visit he made in
Gdynia 's buildings, the architect took a liking to construct more elevated edifices, often located a street corners, like the ones at 5
Swiętej Trojcy, 22/24 Markwarta or 21 Piotrowskiego, displaying four-story houses with rounded shapes and windows circulating smoothly across the entire
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
like ribbons. Jan Kossowski also designed and built in 1939 a tenement house with a car showroom at 7
Plac Wolności.
His best appraised villas designed stand in the Sielanka and Leśne areas and at Sułkowskiego street in Bydgoszcz. They were also inspired by his studies made during visiting Gdynia.
Jan Kossowski additionally designed public buildings (reconstruction), industrial buildings, sacral buildings.
In 1945, he supervised the repair works of the damaged roof tower of the
Church of the Savior.
That same year, he designed the
Freedom Monument
The Freedom Monument ( lv, Brīvības piemineklis, ) is located in Riga, Latvia, honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918–1920). It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty ...
( pl, Pomnik Wolności), erected at
Plac Wolności.
Instances of works in Bydgoszcz
}) that then stood on the premises.
,
![Bdg CHDrukarnia 3 07-2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Bdg_CHDrukarnia_3_07-2013.jpg)
, -----
, 1946
,
Bydgoszcz University building at 11
Jagiellońska street in Bydgoszcz
, Reconstruction.
,
![Bdg UKW Jagiellonska 07-2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Bdg_UKW_Jagiellonska_07-2013.jpg)
, -----bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
, 1946-1948
,
Gasworks building at 42
Jagiellońska street
, Reconstruction and expansion of the administrative building.
,
![Bydg budynek gazowni](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Bydg_budynek_gazowni.jpg)
, -----
, 1947
,
Mix Ernst tenement at 10
Gdańska Street
, Kossowski supervised renovation works to fit a local agency of the '' State Agricultural Bank '' ( pl, Państwowy Bank Rolny).
,
![Bydgoszcz Gdańska 10](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Bydgoszcz_Gda%C5%84ska_10.jpg)
, -----bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
, 1949
, Reconstruction of the presbytery and the chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa,
St. Vincent de Paul Basilica Minor
, The basilica, located at 2
Ossoliński Alley
The House of Ossoliński (plural: Ossolińscy) is the name of a Poland, Polish szlachta (nobility) family. Because Polish adjectives have different forms for the genders, Ossolińska is the form for a female family member.
History
The Ossoliński ...
, has been completed in 1945.
,
See also
*
Bydgoszcz
Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...
*
Bydgoszcz Architects (1850-1970s)
Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the Vistula River, River Vistula with its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda River, Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December ...
*
List of Polish people
This is a partial list of notable Polish or Polish-speaking or -writing people. People of partial Polish heritage have their respective ancestries credited.
Science
Physics
* Czesław Białobrzeski
* Andrzej Buras
* Georges Charpa ...
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kossowski, Jan
1898 births
1958 deaths
20th-century Polish architects
Architects from Bydgoszcz
20th-century Polish military personnel
Modernist architects
Burials in Nowofarny cemetery in Bydgoszcz