Q: The National Music Forum project on Wolności Square isn’t your first encounter with Wrocław, is it?
A: I have a lot of sentiment for Wrocław, because in 1975, as a very young architect, I won a competition for the very same project. Nothing came out of it then, but it gave the beginning to my career, besides, it was while working on it that I met my future wife, who is still with me today. We work and teach together.
My warm feelings towards Wrocław were the reason why we decided to expand to the city. A year ago we opened a branch office in the Blue Sun Arcade and I must say that it is doing quite well. Through it we are also closer to the local market and the site on which the National Music Forum is to stand. In a relatively short time I managed to rally together a group of young, talented designers, among them graduates of Wrocław schools, like Arkadiusz Chamielec and Artur Płaza. In charge of the National Music Forum project are Dariusz Gryta and Krzysztof Panas. However, this is not our only project here. In the past months we’ve managed to secure several sizeable sites in Wrocław’s downtown part, among others on Kurkowa Street, Max Born Street and Lubińska Street.
In 2006 this company and its long-standing customers TriGranit Development Corporation tendered for the development of Wrocław’s Southern Centre, an area covering almost 300,000 sqm. We’re also waiting for the outcome of a sports stadium tender.
I travel to Wrocław once a week and do regret that it doesn’t have good road or rail links with Warsaw. Luckily I’m a licensed pilot, and I always love to look down on the city as I fly in. I usually come in from the direction of Millennium Bridge, called Point Bravo in flying slang, whose characteristic form I already know by heart. What’s special about Wrocław is its huge student population. These young people are open to the world. They are very good mixers. They speak foreign languages. They move around the world with ease and have no cause to feel inferior. I think that they, together with the city’s competent authorities, are what gives Wrocław its aura of enthusiasm and optimism. They will be the ones to decide about the city’s future.
Q: From the very start APA KA worked in four basic areas: public buildings, offices and company headquarters, industrial objects and housing. Which do you like most?
A: The division into areas is just our way of bringing our field closer to clients. We treat all our projects with the same attention, for one because of our size – at the moment we employ 80 architects – and secondly, because it would be boring to concentrate only on one kind. Life is too exciting for us to deprive ourselves of the thrill of seeking new horizons in our daily work. We also have our own company philosophy, which I believe contributes to our success: we trear every project we get like a challenge, not a necessary evil – regardless of whether it is a low-budget housing developments or a large public building. We try to escape routine, so we are constantly on the lookout for new forms of expression. We also pay much attention to the surroundings in which objects we design are to stand. I think that this policy is why we haven’t yet produced anything we need to be ashamed of.
We’re always open to debate, and one form of debate in our profession are contests. We take part in architectural contests all the time, and they account for a large part of our contracts. Over the past two years we’ve won five important competitions, including the one for the National Music Forum. However, I hope our best times still lie ahead.
Q: Tell us about your beginnings.
A: When I took my entrance exams to the architecture faculty at Warsaw University of Technology, I wasn’t very interested in the subject. My main interest at that time was sailing. In my sophomore year I suffered a serious injury, and as a result had to find something else to do. Unable to participate in regattas, I began to seek excitement in design contests. I won several of them soon after my 1972 graduation and this started off my career as an architect.
I became a truly independent designer in 1981, when I decided – perhaps slightly prematurely in light of the martial law that came soon after – to leave the state design bureau where I used to work to start up my own office. Of course I had to put up with the many shortcomings and hindrances of those days, mostly of the economic kind. But I pulled through and in 1989 I already employed a staff of over ten. Today they are still the core of my team. For over 35 years I’ve also been teaching architecture at Warsaw University of Technology, where my wife Ewa also holds a professorship.
Q: How has IT changed architecture?
A: Contrary to what many think it didn’t make the job that much easier. It’s a useful tool for creating architectural forms and it speeds up the technical side of designing. But IT can’t replace talent and imagination. It’s a good tool but no more, and it will never be able to produce the essence of a good design – a conscious architectural concept.
In the case of the National Music Forum we wanted to create a building whose form and structure would inform everybody, regardless of age, education and nationality, that there is a concert hall – a musical temple - inside. In terms of form we were inspired by the violin, the most excellent and best-recognized musical instrument in the world. I hope that’s how Wrocław sees the building when it’s ready.


Autorska Pracownia Architektury Kurylowicz & Associates Sp. z o.o. (APA KA Architectural Office) was founded in 1990 as a descendant of a private design office operating since 1981. In its almost twenty years on the market the company has won numerous domestic and international design competitions. APA KA specializes in large-scale projects like offices, public buildings, industrial objects and housing developments and is known for its high design and technical standards, on-time delivery and financial discipline. The office employs 80 architects and works with leading suppliers. In the past two decades APA KA has gathered an impressive portfolio of contented customers, some returning to the company over the years.
A special section of the company concentrates on so-called “universal” design developed by Professor Ewa Kuryłowicz to meet handicapped needs.
In 2006 and 2007 APA KA won contracts for a Warsaw University campus, an office and trade complex in Warsaw’s Puławska Street, a sportS stadium in Białystok, a university complex in Dobra Street in Warsaw, and the National Music Forum in Wrocław’s Freedom Square.
Among the company’s completed projects are the Fuji Film Poland headquarters in Warsaw (Union of Polish Architects /SARP/ Best Project 1993), several office buildings in Warsaw, including Fokus Filtrowa (Building of the Year 2000), Nautilius (Building of the Decade 1989-1990) and the Królewska office centre (SARP-Polish Cement Award 2003, Warsaw Favourite 2004), the Polish Airlines building, the Zielna Point complex, the Eko-Park housing estate in Warsaw (SARP Award 2003, mention in REFE 2004 Awards), the Marina Mokotów complex, Avon cosmetics plants in Garwolin and Moscow, a Ford assembly plant in Płońsk, a cable harness plant in Stanisławów, offices and production halls for Arcon ISC in Warsaw (SARP Award 1996), the Korean Embassy building (SARP Award 1998), Warsaw’s Hotel Marriott, the General Aviation Terminal at Warsaw Airport, and others.

Associate Professor Stefan Kuryłowicz, Ph.D., was born in 1949. He is a member of the Performance Conditions and Architect Status working groups at the International Union of Architects (IUA). In 1994–97 he was Secretary of the Architecture Section of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Urban Development and Polish Architecture Committee. Professor Kuryłowicz is a long-time active member of the Union of Architects of the Republic of Poland. He has authored numerous essays and papers, and appears at domestic and international conferences and seminars.