The Inter-war Tenements in Bydgoszcz

Abstract

When in January 1920 Bydgoszcz again returned within the borders of Poland the town’s character was dominated by the buildings of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. This does not mean that the buildings of the inter-war period did not leave a trace on the urban development of the town. The paper presents some questions concerning the inter-war tenement houses from Bydgoszcz.

In the 1920s it is worth noting the activity of the Building Office of the Bydgoszcz Magistrate. It built houses with many flats on the territory that belonged to the town (at 13 Piotrowski Street, Babia Wieś Street, 64 Toruńska Street, 5 Libelta Street, and 2 Weyssenhoff Street). The engineer architect Bogdan Raczkowski designed all the buildings. He was a graduate of Lvov Polytechnic. The buildings are examples how one epoch of historicism came to an end, and the second epoch of functionalism was initiated. In the 1930s private investors ordered a series of tenements (at 20 January Street, Zamojski Street, and Piotrowski Street). Their main architect was Jan Kossowski.