Façade decoration at 102 Ogarna Street

Object: The façade covers a residential block constructed as part of Gdańsk’s post-war reconstruction. In 2015, it underwent a complete renovation as part of the ‘Gdańskie Fasady OdNowa’ project, aimed at improving the quality of public spaces in the Main Town by adding architectural decorations to buildings that had been overlooked during Gdańsk’s reconstruction.

The four-bay façade of the building at 102 Ogarna Street was originally given modest decoration in the form of plaster window frames and a cornice separating the ground floor from the rest of the elevation. The façade is topped with a flat attic. The main artistic intervention focused on the area between the second and third floors. Along the axes, six depictions of biblical angels with three pairs of wings – Seraphim – were placed, enclosed within triangles and hexagons. An additional element of the composition is a blue diamond outline, whose vertical points extend from the central angel on the third floor to the lower part of the second-floor window, vertically encompassing all the angel depictions in the lower interstorey band. The attic is crowned with a meander pattern incorporating a swastika motif. It seems the aim of the design was to optically alter the proportions of the façade, but this was achieved at the expense of architectural structure, composition, and iconography.

Location: The buildings are in an area designated as a heritage site. They form part of the historic urban layout of the city of Gdańsk. Ogarna Street was destroyed in 1945 during the war. It was rebuilt on the basis of the so-called Zachwatowicz plan that envisaged the reconstruction of historical forms, which was only feasible in the form of a workers’ housing estate. The erected block of flats was covered by a historicist façade screen. The buildings thus created were the result of combining two houses into a complex with a common staircase, an entrance from the courtyard and an even top line of windows emphasising the block-like nature of the premise. The elevations were not completed with architectural decoration.

Information about the author: Jacek Kornacki is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting and Graphics at the State School of Fine Arts (now the Academy of Fine Arts) in Gdańsk, where he earned his degree in the studio of Prof. Mieczysław Olszewski. He currently leads the Studio of Painting and Drawing Fundamentals and serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Painting. Kornacki has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: ‘Attyka’ real estate management

Author of the entry: Noemi Etush