Zabludow Synagogue Project

Handshouse Announces a Travel Program to Poland ...

Entitled Poland: Documenting Historic Wooden Architecture," the two-week program was led by Rick and Laura Brown, faculty members of MassArt. Students from MassArt participated with study areas in architecture, art history, photography, drawing, and sculpture and skills in traditional crafts, wood and metal. A number of students have Polish grandparents and relatives.

Participants traveled to historic sites in Poland and worked as a team to document a selected wooden structure from the 17th century. They used measured drawings and photography of architectural details and artifacts. Poland's wooden architecture includes Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches, mosques, and synagogues. Today, many of these early wooden structures in Poland need restoration and documentation. With this program, professionals, faculty and students from around the world can come together to document a historic structure of Poland.

The Polish village of Narew, located close to the Belarus boarder on the Narew river in Eastern Poland. This picture was taken in 1916 from a hot air balloon in WWI.

Background

In 1923, architects and architecture students from Warsaw Technicl Institute documented the wooden Jewish synagogues of Poland through measured drawing and photographs. In 1942, during the Nazi invasion of Poland, all of the wooden synagogues throughout Poland were destroyed. Documentation is all that remains.

In 2004, this travel course, in the spirit of the work of the Polish students and architects of 1923, will contribute to the preservation of one of Poland's existing historic structures.

Magdalena Prosinska traveled with us throughout Poland and was our trusty leader. Marek Baranski helped us make the arrangements in Poland for documenting two buildings from two different religions, and arranged for four students from Lithuania, Bielarus, Ukraine and Zamosc to join the group. The leaders included Ed Levin (of Paradigm Builders and the Timber Framers Guild), Laura Brown (of Mass Art, Handshouse Studio, and TFG), Rick Brown (of Mass Art, Handshouse Studio, and TFG), and Nat Crosby (of Wentworth Institute of Technology).

In the spirit of the Bialystok Resolution, agreed to by all the participants of the Annihilated Heritage Conference 2003, these programs represent "international learning network" projects dedicated to preserving the wooden cultural heritage of Poland.

This program was developed by Handshouse Studio and Annihilated Heritage - Zagludow Project International Workshops for Preservation of Historic Wood Building Tradition.