Modernism as an artistic phenomenon and a trend in the history of architecture appeared in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and spread quickly through the whole continent, leaving traces in architecture of many even small towns. Modernism in architecture can be divided into several stages. During the Interwar period it was one of most frequently used trends in architectural projects and enjoyed great successes. The Second World War violently stopped the progress of the trend, which came back after the War ended to ultimately end its progress in about 1965 - the year of death of Le Corbusier, one of its great representatives.
Modernism had the following characteristics. Above all, it is in some sense a social trend, with the goal to the change the spaces of the European cities in such a way as to make them easier to live in. This means that the architects should move away from the legacy of the 19th century city, whose main elements were tenement houses and dim courtyards of the densely developed city blocks. Modernism instead advocated simplicity in architecture. Among the ways of expressing it was the use of cubic shapes, geometric spatial solutions, flat roofs and rows of windows.
Regaining of independence by Poland in 1918 became an additional impulse to use modernism as a sort of a national style, readily used in public utility buildings and in single- and multi-family housing. Also during the post-War period after 1956 modernism again became the trend used in designing residential buildings, housing estates and public utility buildings such as schools, kindergartens and museums.
1920s were in case of the regional capital - Poznań the stage of a struggle after the recently ended First World War. The town was not however destroyed as a result of the War. On the basis of the formed urban organism, the Polish architects Sylwester Pajzderski (1876-1953) and then Władysław Czarnecki (1895-1983) attempted to create in 1920s and 1930s the image of the modern city which main feature was to be the service to its residents. Sylwester Pajzderski was one of the few architects in the city with the experience in urban planning to become a sort of a precursor of the new concept of modern Poznań development.
The modernist architecture in Poznań of the Interwar period consists in large part of public utility buildings. In this context the PKO building at 3 Wolności Square should be mentioned. The building of the PKO bank is one of the most distinctive examples of implementing monumental construction in the Poznań architecture of the 1930s.
The period of the Second World War ends the first stage of modernism in Poznań and Wielkopolska. The period of the post-war reconstruction that fell on the years 1945 to 1948 is a period in the history of architecture. After the year 1948 the centrally enforced socialist realism doctrine goes into effect. It effectively eliminates all forms of modernist actions. In case of Poznan the last breath of modernism in the times of social realism was the CDT Okrąglak building designed by Marek Leykam and built between 1949 and 1954.
The thaw propagated after 1956 and the dramatic departure from the principles of social realism were the turning points in the history of Polish architecture, including the architecture of Wielkopolska.
The end of the 1960s and the end of modernism took place at the time when a new idea was conceived according to which the premises of modernism were to be implemented but in a different scale and scope.
In case of Wielkopolska we can focus on the examples of modernist buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s. The first of the buildings which can be said to have entered the canon of the Polish architecture history is the Building Complex of the Monument of the Millennium of the Polish State in Gniezno built in the years 1973-1978 and located on the eastern side of the Jelonek lake. In 1979 the authors were awarded for this design with the I Degree Prize of the Ministry of Construction.
The following example of Wielkopolska modernism is the recreational centre in Wągrowiec located on the Durowskie lake, designed by Włodzimierz Staniszewski and Norbert Domin. It was built in the years 1966–1972 and awarded with in 1973 the III Prize of the Ministry of Territorial Economy and Environment Protection.
Modernism as a trend chartered various paths of creating architecture. Still, in an attempt to summarise, we can state that it fulfilled the hopes pinned on it and became the trend that opened new ways of expressions for architects.
