Ruszczewski

This book is the first comprehensive monograph on Polish modern architect Jerzy Soltan’s work including his designs, theory, and teachings in Poland and America based on extensive archival research and oral history interviews with former students.

The Life and Work of Jerzy Soltan takes the reader on a journey to both sides of the iron curtain, the communist Poland and the capitalist United States, contributing to the existing scholarship on modernism in post-socialist counties, on CIAM, and on Team 10. It pictures Soltan as a central player in the history of modernism, building on his own contribution and on close relationships with Le Corbusier and Team 10. This book illustrates not only Soltan’s work but also his life and how it influenced twentieth-century architecture. Looking in detail at his designs and texts enables the reader to discover how modern architecture tendencies can fit into a larger geopolitical context and how designs can be true manifestos to an architect’s theory. The reader will be immersed in a series of different contexts - from communist Poland, the vibrant academic atmosphere at Harvard to lively discussions on the future of modern architecture.

This publication will be of particular interest for those studying modern architecture in Central Europe and in post-socialist countries, in particular Poland. Architects, designers, architectural and design students, and modern architecture enthusiasts will find this publication on the ＂last modernist＂ architect revealing new perspectives thanks to the unpublished and unresearched sources.

Szymon Ruszczewski, architect, researcher, and scholar, graduated from the University of Florence and later received the Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield. He has taught design studios and humanities-based courses at the universities in Florence, Pisa, and Sheffield and at the Polytechnic of Milan, and he works as a registered architect in Florence. His work is concentrated on the themes related to modern architecture history and heritage, and its conservation. He has earlier published his research on Alvar Aalto and his work in Italy, while this publication is based on his Ph.D. research on modern architect Jerzy Soltan.