Marta Smektała

AIR Modernism

Field: Architektura City: Wrocław

Marta Smektała, female architect, participant of the first stage of AIR Modernism residence. She graduated from the Poznań University of Technology, she also took part in the annual exchange of the Erasmus program at Politecnico di Milano. She obtained a master's degree at the University of Technology in Delft. In 2019, she started doctoral studies at the Wrocław University of Technology, in her doctoral thesis she deals with the spatial and energy renovation of tenement houses - the extension of their backyard facades with private external space, acting as a thermal buffer. In architecture, she examines the authenticity, the human-architecture / city relationship and the quality of space.

The Wrocław based architect, treats her residential project as an attempt to verify modernism by supplementing its pure image with a "layer of life". Axonometrics, photographs and perspectives often show modernist architecture in shots emphasizing the purity and simplicity of its form. Thus, the Plac Grunwaldzki estate - commonly known as Manhattan – has become a subject of analysis. The project aims to create a mental map consisting of memories, anecdotes and legends around the estate. The collected information will reveal what additional rituals (not designed or foreseen by the architects) were carried out by the residents in the modernist living space. In this way, the pure modernist form will be complemented by an authentic picture of the residents' habits, treating the architecture as a background for certain events.

On October 14th there will be a meeting with the participants of the AIR Modernism residency which is a summary of their research on Wroclaw modernism. The event will officially end the stay of foreign residents in Wroclaw. Artist talk will start at 6pm in Fandom, 6 Grunwaldzki Square.