Prof. Maria Jolanta Sołtysik awarded with the Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski Medal | The Faculty of Architecture at the Gdańsk University of Technology

Professor Maria Jolanta Sołtysik has received the Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski Medal "For Outstanding Contributions to Gdynia." An architect associated with the Faculty of Architecture at Gdańsk University of Technology, she contributed to the promotion of Gdynia’s architecture and urban planning in Poland and Europe. She created the theoretical foundations for the protection of modernist heritage in Gdynia.

Her work includes numerous publications on Gdynia and its development, with some of the earliest being groundbreaking. The book “Na styku dwóch epok. Architektura gdyńskich kamienic okresu międzywojennego” (At the meeting point of two eras. Architecture of Gdynia tenement houses in the interwar period), published in 2003, led to the inclusion of Gdynia’s city center in the heritage protection registry. Initially, individual buildings were listed, and in 2007, the entire city center was finally protected. The idea of elevating Gdynia’s city center to the status of a historical monument, presented by Professor Sołtysik during one of the conferences, was realized in 2015.

She was one of the initiators of the series of international scientific conferences “Modernism in Europe – Modernism in Gdynia”, which are organized by the city every two years. She is also the scientific editor of nine monographic volumes published after each of these conferences.

Through her work, she reinforces Gdynia’s position as an important center of global modernism. Proof of this is also the fact that she was a co-author of the application for the inclusion of Gdynia's city center on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which was accepted in 2023.

We warmly congratulate Professor Sołtysik and wish her continued success.