Monday 14 December 2020
In this talk, Prof. Edward Denison explores the remarkable, albeit little known, modernist city Gdynia on Poland’s Baltic coast. Conceived as Poland’s gateway to the world in response to the neighbouring port of Gdansk becoming a Free City in the Treaty of Versailles, Gdynia’s urban development as an entirely new city between the wars was a response to the exigency of Poland’s need for a port, which became one of the largest in the Baltic.
Combining exemplary architectural, planning and cultural characteristics from the interwar period, the city’s modern character has continued to inform development in the post-war and post-Soviet eras. As a pioneer of new kinds of modern metropolitan lifestyles in the 1930s, particularly associated with the sea, Gdynia is still referred to fondly as Poland’s ‘Happy City’ and its modernist architecture continues to be the city’s defining characteristic. Edward Denison is currently working with the city authorities and colleagues at Gdańsk University of Technology on their UNESCO World Heritage nomination. If successful, this will be one of very few World Heritage sites recognised for its modernist attributes and second only to Asmara (Eritrea), site of The Architecture Club’s tour in 2019, for an entirely new city based on early expressions of modern planning and architecture before the Second World War.