Halina Skibniewska

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Halina Skibniewska

Halina Skibniewska , b. Erentz (born January 10, 1921 in Warsaw ; † April 20, 2011 in Warsaw ) was an award-winning Polish architect and urban planner. She was a university professor and a longtime Sejm member . From 1971 to 1985 Skibniewska held the post of representative of the Polish Sejm Marshal . She was the second wife of the architect Zygmunt Skibniewski .

Life

Skibniewska studied at the Warsaw University of Technology . During the occupation in World War II, she cooperated with the Home Army . In 1948 she finished her studies. She died at the age of 90 and was buried on April 28, 2011 in Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.

Architect and university professor

Until 1949 she worked in the Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy (BOS). She was involved in the reconstruction of the Teatr Wielki . Romuald Gutt later hired her as his assistant at the architecture department at Politechnika. She also worked in his project office. From 1957 she worked for the Warsaw housing cooperative WSM (Polish: Warszawska Spółdzielni Mieszkaniowej).

Skibniewska was particularly connected to the Warsaw district of Żoliborz , where she realized her most important project - “Sady Żoliborskie” (completed in 1961), a reference object of the time. She designed other settlements in Sadyba (1971) and Szwoleżerów (1974). Several school buildings (in Sadyba, Radkowice and Sokółec ) and the ZETO building in Warsaw can also be traced back to them. Skibniewska built in a modern way, tried to incorporate green spaces and - where available - used old building fabric or elements for decoration. She was one of the first architects to build partially handicapped accessible and refused to use prefabricated concrete panels for the construction of her facilities.

Skibniewska was an advocate of the historic Vistula embankment development and campaigned for the preservation and reconstruction of the existing buildings (palaces, churches, monasteries).

From 1975 to 1985 she taught as a professor at Politechnika, where she developed the ideas of Professors Romuald Gutt and Zygmunt Skibniewski. Her research focused on the relationship between human life in the city, the social function of residential buildings and the surrounding area. She also addressed the question of adequately adapting residential units to the needs of the disabled. For many years she worked as the Polish correspondent for the architecture magazine L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui .

politician

From 1965 to 1985 Skibniewska was a non-party member of the Sejm in the 4th to 8th cadence. She received her mandate from the constituency of Warsaw Praga or Warsaw-Praga Południe. She worked u. a. in commissions on construction, regional economic development and regional culture. In 1971 she was elected as the first woman in the history of the Polish parliament as deputy to the Sejm marshal. She held this office under the presidents of parliament ( Dyzma Gałaj and Stanisław Gucwa ) until 1985. No other MP has held this post for such a long period.

On May 26, 1982, she and four other MPs left a parliamentary session in protest against the removal of Ryszard Reiff, who was the only member of the government who had spoken out against the introduction of martial law . During the time of martial law, she used her influence to help interned opposition representatives, including Bronisław Komorowski . In 1986 she was a member of the advisory body of the Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic (Polish: Rady Konsultacyjnej przy Przewodniczącym Rady Państwa PRL), Wojciech Jaruzelski . In 1989 she left politics.

In addition to her parliamentary mandate, Skibniewska was active in many associations and organizations. She was president of the Society of Polish-French Friendship (Polish: Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Francuskiej) and a member of the Polska Akademia Nauk and the Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie .

She was the recipient of many awards; At the same time as Kurt Bachmann , she received the Order of Lenin for Friendship and Peace .

References and comments

  1. ↑ according to Article communism today. Part VIII: The states of the Eastern Bloc go their own way in the magazine Der Spiegel , issue 26/1977 of June 20, 1977.
  2. ↑ a b according to Niels Gutschow, Barbara Klain: Destruction and Utopia. City planning Warsaw 1939–1945. Junius-Verlag, ISBN 3-88506-223-2 , Hamburg 1994, p. 168.
  3. ^ Romuald Gutt (1888–1974) was a Polish architect, representative of the modern and university professor in Warsaw.
  4. ↑ The school building at Ulica Sobieskiego 68 (located in the “Sadyba” housing estate) was built in 1970/71 according to a design by Halina Skibniewska, Andrzej Malek, Tadeusz Perszyński and W. Bryndza-Nacki. It was awarded the title "Mister '71" in the competition for the best building in Warsaw in 1971.
  5. ↑ according to Eastern Europe , Volume 23, Issue 4, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde (Ed.), Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1973, p. 897 .
  6. ^ Ryszard Reiff (1923-2007) was a Polish lawyer, member of the resistance and politician.
  7. ↑ according to George Sanford, Military rule in Poland. The rebuilding of communist power. War against the nation , ISBN 0-7099-3323-1 , Croom Helm Ltd., Australia 1986, p. 151 .
  8. ↑ according to Polish Perspectives , Vol. 2, 1979, p. 54 .

Web links

  • Obituary in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza from April 22, 2011 (in Polish)
personal data
SURNAME Skibniewska, Halina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Erentz, Halina (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish architect, university professor and politician, member of the Sejm
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2011
Place of death Warsaw