ALEKSANDER GRUCHALSKI – AN INTERWAR ARCHITECT FROM LUBLIN

JERZY ŻYWICKI

Aleksander Gruchalski (1894–1943) worked as an architect in the years 1925–1939. He came from Urzędów, where he was shot during the World War II. He obtained the Architectural Education at the Warsaw Polytechnic, where he studied from 1916 to 1923. After graduation, he moved to Lublin. He worked as a construction inspector in the Magistrate of the Lublin city. His professional career has been linked with architectural design. He was the author of more than thirty buildings for various purposes. These included religious buildings, villas, townhouses, multi-family tenement houses and buildings for public purpose. In Gruchalski’s architectural creativity we can see two trends, both associated with modernism. The first of them - combining the features of this style with the display of the “native”  elements - refers to the objects such as churches in  Polichna and Ostrówek, the chapel in the cemetery at Unicka Street  in Lublin and the Rifle Association House in Parczew. The second - represented by far the greater number of the buildings - already combined with modernism at break with historical tradition. Here an example is primarily the townhouses and villas in Lublin, Urzędów’s People’s House, and the school, which was to stand in Parczew. If not for the war and the tragic death of Gruchalski, maybe we could judge another trend in his work – the avant-garde. Its announcement is a constructivist design of a kiosk, designed to sell newspapers. Although never implemented, it is a great certify that Gruchalski knew and accepted the most innovative developments in architecture.

Key words: Aleksander Gruchalski, biographies of architects, history of architecture, history of Lublin, historical records, modernism