The teaching of architecture has over a hundred years of tradition in Gdansk. Architecture was one of the six faculties of the city’s first university of technology (Königliche Preussische Technische Hochschule), which was founded in 1904, when Gdansk/Danzig was in the Prussian Partition. Albert Carsten, who arrived in Gdansk in March 1900, designed (in a historical style that alludes to the Flemish Renaissance and Baroque forms), and next supervised the construction of the first university buildings, including the Main Building, where the Faculty of Architecture has been based ever since.
The inauguration of the university’s first academic year took place in 1904 and Albert Carsten became one of the professors, teaching architectural design until the 1933/34 academic year. Other excellent professors of architecture at the university from that period included: Friedrich Ostendorf, the architecture historian Adalbert Matthaei, the rebuilder of Malbork/Marienburg Castle Konrad Steinbrecht, Karl Gruber and Otto Kloeppel.
In 1922, at the time of the Free City of Gdansk/Danzig of the interwar years, the university was reorganised into three large faculties. The Faculty of Architecture then became part of the larger Faculty of Civil Engineering. The university’s students and teaching staff of architecture were various nationalities.
On 24th May 1945, shortly after the end of the Second World War, a Decree of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of Poland replaced the Technische Hochschule with a Polish university: the Gdansk University of Technology. The Faculty of Architecture was formally instituted on the basis a Decree of the Minister of Education on 25th October 1945.
Many of the faculty’s teaching staff were professors of Poland’s pre-war universities in Wilno and Lwów, including: the former rector of the Lwów University of Technology Prof. Witold Minkiewicz, who specialised in monumental architecture, the former dean of the Lwów Faculty of Architecture and first dean of the Gdansk Faculty of Architecture Prof. Marian Osiński, the architecture historian Prof. Władysław Lam and the architecture conservator Jan Borowski. The remaining professors were from other pre-war Polish universities, including the Warsaw University of Technology.
In the first years after the war the Faculty provided “inżynier” and “magister studies”, whereas later it provided uniform magister studies only. From 1945 to 1969 it was called the Faculty of Architecture; from 1969 to 1971- the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture; from 1971 to 1981 – the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning; whereas from 1981 to this day it is again called the Faculty of Architecture.
From 1945 to 1966 magister studies included 11 semesters; from 1967 to 1974 they lasted 10 semesters; from 1975 to 1981 – 9 semesters; and from 1981 to this day they again last 10 semesters.
In the years 1974-1983 the Faculty also provided uniform, nine-semester magister studies in the field of Spatial Planning (for the “magister inżynier architect” diploma). In the years 2002 – 2006 the Faculty also provided professional degree I evening studies (7 semesters, for the “inżynier architect” diploma) in the field of Architecture and Urban Planning.
With the introduction of the Higher Education Act of 12th September 1990 the studies and their curricula were reorganised. The new studies programme was prepared in accordance with the training requirements for architects as defined by the Council Directive 85/384/EEC Chapter II Article 3. This directive facilitated the freedom of movement for architects and opened up for them the opportunity to find employment in other countries in Europe, while at the same time forced modification in the teaching programme so that the qualifications of university graduates became more competitive on the demanding European market. The five-year (ten-semester) course of magister studies was maintained.
With the time and new opportunities, The faculty started participating in exchange schemes for students (for the duration of one or two semesters) as well as teaching and scientific staff (for short stays, course lectures or conferences), initially on the basis of inter-university agreements and individual internships, and later as part of the Tempus programme as well as subsequently other inter-university programmes (Socrates, Erasmus, LLP Erasmus, Erasmus + and Partner Countries program, CEEPUS).
Since 14 December 2010, diplomas of graduation from the Faculty of Architecture in the field of Architecture and Urban Planning are recognized in the European Union see: (Official Journal of the European Union - Official Journal of the European Union, 2010 / C 337/02).
Since 2001, Faculty is a Member of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) and the European Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture (ENHSA), organizations bringing together approx. 150 schools of architecture in the European Union. The faculty is also a member of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), association of schools of spatial management, urban design and planning.
