Heritage, reinterpretation or imitation? – contemporary inspirations from traditional soft limestone architecture in the Uniejów region

Abstract

This paper focuses on the possibility of the continuity of traditional values through the architecture’s formal, constructional, and plastic character, based on the analyses of a dozen or so buildings from the Uniejów region in the central part of Poland. A common feature of these structures constructed over the last 20 years was the use of soft limestone. The authors aimed to determine whether and to what extent these structures are consistent with regional rural architecture. In the analyzed area, from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the 1960s, construction based on locally exploited deposits of limestone developed dynamically, unusually in terms of materials for this part of the country. The analysis in this article covered primarily such features of the objects as the area of origin of the stone material, its purpose, the stonemasonry techniques used, the functional program of the object, and its architectural features. The article also discusses whether such contemporary architectural implementations can contribute to the popularization of abandoned stone material in the region and, at the same time, result in more effective protection of traditional construction made of local stone. It is an example of disappearing architectural heritage due to ongoing modernization or demolition