Ryszard Piotr Jurkowski (born 28 May 1945) is a Polish architect and urban planner noted for his contemporary and embracing

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

design of

residential A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

, commercial, educational, industrial and civic buildings, and for his fight against the monotonous and dreary architecture of the communist era. He is one of Poland’s most prolific architects.

Early life and career

Ryszard Jurkowski was born in

Sosnowiec Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Silesian Metropolis municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industria ...

in 1945, where he also went to Boleslaw Prus Secondary School. In 1969 he graduated with a master's degree in architecture from Krakow University of Technology, subsequently obtaining the professional qualifications to practice under the title ‘architect’. In 1969 he joined the Regional Municipal Building Company in Sosnowiec, but two years later began working for a large architectural firm Investprojekt in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

. Since 1990 he has been a senior partner at AiR Jurkowscy Architekci, a practice he had established with his wife who also holds a degree in architecture. Between 1991 and 1996 Jurkowski was a senior lecturer at Krakow University of Technology and in the years 1992-1998 and 2003-2006 the chairman of the Regional Commission for Urban Planning and Architecture in Katowice He was also appointed a member of Poland’s General Commission for Urban Planning and Architecture in Warsaw and he played a significant role in creating the Act of 15 December 2000 on professional self-governing bodies for architects. He was the chief coordinator of the professional architects' environments and in 2000 was elected the president of the

Association of Polish Architects The Association of Polish Architects ( pl, Stowarzyszenie Architektów Polskich, SARP) is a Polish professional architecture organisation. Since 1948 it has been a member of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the International Federa ...

, and held this position until 2006. Jurkowski is a sponsor and promoter of publishing architectural and design books and, in 2018 orchestrated the publishing of the first Polish edition of ''On Adam’s House in Paradise: The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History'' (Polish: ''O rajskim domu Adama: Idea pierwotnej chaty w historii architektury''), a literary work on the history and philosophy of architecture written by the foremost historian and critic Professor Joseph Rykwert, and published under the patronage of the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (NIAIU) and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. He is also a member of the Polish Architecture Council. and one of the judges of the Collegium of Competition Judges SARP.

Honours and awards

Ryszard Jurkowski is the winner of

SARP Honorary Award The SARP Honorary Award (Polish: ''Honorowa Nagroda SARP'') is one of the two most prominent and significant annual architectural prizes in Poland, and it's awarded by the Association of Polish Architects (SARP) in recognition of the outstandin ...

1999,

SARP Award of the Year The SARP Award of the Year ( pl, Nagroda Roku SARP) – is one of the two most prestigious annual architectural prizes in Poland. It is awarded by the Association of Polish Architects (SARP) to the designers of the most significant contemporary bui ...

1987 and 2010 and of the 1st and 2nd degree Award of the Ministry of Construction (now the Ministry of Infrastructure). He is the recipient of the Honoris Gratia 2011 and of the Silver and Gold Cross of Merit in the recognition of his achievements. In 2013 he was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award for the Home Army Museum in Krakow. He is also the winner of

Brick Award DoSomething (also DoSomething.org) is a global nonprofit organization with the goal of motivating young people to make positive change both online and offline through campaigns. The organization's CEO is DeNora Getachew. History The organizati ...

Polska 2013. In 2012 he has received the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from the President of Poland ''for his outstanding contribution to Polish architecture''.

Selected projects

Photo gallery

File:Zory1.jpg, City Museum, Żory File:Zory3.jpg, City Museum, Żory

References

External links

* Budimex * Honoris Gratia {{DEFAULTSORT:Jurkowski, Ryszard 1945 births Living people People from Katowice Polish urban planners 20th-century Polish architects 21st-century Polish architects Recipients of the Cross of Merit (Poland) Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology alumni