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Szyszko-Bohusz, Adolf
(b Narva [now in Estonia], 1 Sept 1883; d Kraków, 1 Oct 1948). Polish architect, designer, restorer, writer and teacher. He studied (1902–9) at the Academy of Fine Arts, St Petersburg, and subsequently studied the history of art in Kraków. His early buildings include a synagogue (1910), Kharkiv, a house (1912), at 7 Mariacki Square, Kraków, and cloisters for pilgrims at a convent in Jasna Góra, in Czestochowa, which reflect the requirement to use national forms of architecture. Above all, however, he was an advocate of a simplified, monumental, academic classicism, notably in the design for the Hotel Bristol (1912) and the house (1913) at 15 Zwierzyniecka Street, both in Kraków, and his design for a ministerial building (1921) in Warsaw. He applied classical ideas magnificently in the National Savings Bank Building (1925), Kraków, and in the building constructed to house its employees. Szyszko-Bohusz’s extensive simplification of classical designs, already evident in the design for the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy (1913), Kraków, was transformed into a measured functional approach after 1930, exemplified by the House of the Artists (1934) in Kraków and the Polish President’s Mansion (1930–31) in Wisa. For the latter he designed a Bauhaus-style interior, with Andrzej Pronaszko (1888–1961) and Wlodzimierz Podlewski (1895–1977). Generally his interiors use expensive and elegant materials, such as multicoloured marbles, bronzes and fine timber panelling. His restoration (1916) of Wawel Castle, Kraków, demonstrates his belief in the appropriateness of using contemporary forms in the context of a historic building, somewhat to the detriment of the monument’s authenticity. In 1913–16 he was a professor at the Institute of Technology in Lwów [now L’viv]; he then taught at the Institute of Technology, Warsaw Technical University (1934–9), and the Institute of Technology in Kraków (1945–8).
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