The legacy of Lodz industrial times
In the beginning of the industrial revolution in the XIX century and after cancelling the customs border with the Russian Empire, the Government decided to locate on the south of the old city the new one devoted for the textile industry. Below you can see the visual history of these times frozen in the sides of the streets. Welcome to the sketchy journey!!!
Piotrowska 88 kinetic Kuczka
This beautiful verandas were created especially for the Sukkot Jewish Holidays. According to Talmud every Jew should build his own shelter. Contemporary Lodz Kuczkas (original Polish name of shelter) are designed as temporary wooden or steel constructions. The most famous one is situated in the yard of the tenement house on Piotrowska 88 street, its original design allows users to open the roof in this way to cover balconies on the sides of veranda. According to owner of tenant house, with whom I have opportunity to talk the mechanism is still working (he was very proud because of that :) ) Before the II World War, in Lodz there were thousands of Kuczkas. During the times of war they were demolished, and materials from which they were constructed were used for another purposes.
Piotrowska window bays colection
The forms of Lodz bay windows take various forms. They can be rectangular, they can have pointed roofs, balconies with volute ornaments or arcade windows topped with frontons. I can say they create real architectural diversity on Piotrowska street. Tenant houses are not tall, they have up to 6 floors. Architects say about such buildings, that they are in human scale. I agree with them in this case.
Eclectic ornaments on Piotrowska street
On Piotrowska street there are also rich-ornamented eclectic tenement houses, with neoclassical consoles, bay windows, pilasters with art-nouveau floral ornaments. Note the neoclassical broken pediment of the central bay window! It is perfectly composed in two similar circles.
Liberty square analysis
The "Liberty square" was named the "Market of new city", it was the second market of Lodz and was situated 450 m in south of Lodz Old Market. The square composition was originally designed and built in 1823 as concentric octagons with the fair in their center.
In right upper corner of my sketch you can see the classicist city hall built in the 1827 according to the project of Bonifacy Witkowski. The building is topped with rectangular campanile with the large external clock, on which there is a small tower called by architects flèche (pol. sygnaturka) City Hall together with Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit creates a symbolical gate to Piotrowska street. In 1930 the fair in the center was replaced with the Tadeusz Kościuszko monument. The tram public transport system was created in1898, then the Liberty square became round-about.
Izrael Poznanski industrial palace
This probably most famous Lodz building is called the "Lodz's louvre". It was designed as representative building for Izrael Poznański in 1877. During the years 1888 and 1903, palace was gradually transformed in the French neoclassical style by a design of Adolf Zeligson and Hilary Majewski. The ballroom and dining hall was designed by Lodz's painter Samuel Hirszenberg.
Poznanski's Palace interior analysis
After analysis of the interior, I came up with the idea that all the ornaments, motifs and patterns on wooden wall panels, balustrades or stuccoes were designed using the circular composition. It shows that palace was decorated in Neo-Renaissance style. I think architects use more ellipse composition, when they design in Neo-Baroque style
Piotrowska famous botanical consoles
The areas between the volutes in the Lodz consoles are often filled with botanic ornaments. Neo-Baroque pediments are often topped with small flèches.
Palace of music
The palace of music in Lodz was designed on the plan of litter "C" with high basements and habitable attic. The palace is consisted of two side wings and front part, where there was designed ballrooms and dining rooms. On the first floor there is a winter garden, covered with beautiful art-nouveau glass roof. The interiors of the palace are rich decorated with stuccoes, wood panelings, stained-glasses, furniture and marble chimneys that are using the renaissance motifs. The interior staircase was illuminated with the stained-glass from the workshop of the Richard Schlein from Zittau.
Window bays in Palace of music
Note the beautiful, natural console of this window bay! It resembles the bouquet of flowers. Namely, the pattern of stained-glass in the bottom right corner looks like the tail of peacock :)
Wall paneling, stuccoes, ceilings in Poznanski Palace of Music.
The ornamented stuccoes were designed as geometrical patterns filled with Renaissance motifs. They create together with paneled walls and floors a integral interior composition. The character of this space is very harmonious like the Major Minor tonality in the Baroque music. In the interior of the palace we can not only see the space, but also hear... Literally, musicians are playing Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart pieces on the corridors of this beautiful Palace of music.
One of the eclectic window bays from Piotrowska street.
I love the tree structure composition of windows. We can see on this window rhythms like 2-2-1,5-1. It sounds great!
Palace of music representative staircase
Lodz Academy of Music is situated in neoclassical palace, built for Carol Poznanski, the director of joint-stock company of cotton industry. The Palace was constructed according to plans of Adolf Zelingson in 1904-08. The above sketches depict the plan of rococo staircase and its stucco ceiling. We can see the complex star ornaments with 2, 4, 6 or 8 axes of symmetry.
Piotrowska 88 kinetic Kuczka
Lodz Liberty square with classicist City Hall.
Thanks for watching and reading !!!