Architecture is a serious matter – in that respect, OVO Grąbczewscy is no exception. Functional, constructive, legal, and financial requirements, as well as client expectations, mean that architecture is the most “unfree” of all the arts, and the trend is rising. In order to retain the creative freedom necessary for their profession, the architects have developed the thesis of “playing architecture”. This enables them – despite stringent conditions – to apply their vision, research, and sense of freedom, fun, and humor as they see fit.
The Museum of Fire (Żory, 2015), for example, was originally intended to be a simple information pavilion – until the architects took the history of the city at its word: Żory is the Polish word for “fire”. In the competition for the Małopolska Science Center in Krakow (2018, 3rd prize in competition), they combined six seemingly incompatible concepts. And the administrative center in Wielka Wieś (2016) was not “designed” at all; the architects copied the characteristics of the surrounding buildings in terms of scale, form, and material.
