The Master Passed away

On May 13, 2019, master Stanisław Niemczyk passed away. He was an open person, empathetic towards everyone; to church-building communities that he was able to bind and mobilize to build temples, devoting his energy, talent and time to the "cause"; to investors showing a good will to cooperate, to fellow architects, which does not happen very often in the environment. The conversation with Marek Skwara and Stanisław Niemczyk "Who want to see" was published in issue 9/96 of the monthly "Architektura", on the occasion of granting Stanisław Niemczyk the Honorary SARP Award 1996. Its excerpt in the 9/2019 issue of the ŚLĄSK magazine.

Among the several questions asked, there are also the following, the answer to which sheds light on the Master's creative method.

Are you close to the idea of a medieval bricklayer who builds together with a group of builders?

Stanisław Niemczyk: You got me here. This is a dream, the greatest adventure. Manual control, which has happened to me at the moment in Czechowice, where I am almost every day at six in the morning. A small sacred building is being built there, rebuilt from some factory hall. When an investor takes my documentation under his arm and disappears, I wonder why I was working on it? You cease to influence the sequel. No documentation ends with the drawing and there is no point when you cannot change something in the implementation. I do not believe in a brilliant solution. Although computerization helps in visualizing the project, discovering the space that has been drawn and that is being created is something new for me every time. We draw perspectives that - for better or worse - fit with computer drawing. The drawing is very precise in a geometric and optical sense, while the novelty of any space is one-off. And every time I wonder how it fits with my vision, whether I drew it that way. This is a very inspiring moment during the realization, the realization that it is possible to create and process further. If it can be done together with the investor, it is a comfortable situation. Just dreaming ...

Marek Skwara