Karolina Czeczek (Only If), “Public Pools” (Yale School of Architecture)

Karolina Czeczek will briefly present her work as part of Only If, and subsequently focus on her independent research on public pools and design proposal People’s Pool.

 

The public pools research explores the history, form, social, and cultural aspects of the swimming pool as an architectural type. The pool serves as a device to engage specific aspects of public space and architectural invention while revealing the undercurrents of urban policy. The public pools research consists of a catalog of the New York City public pools and a collection of drawings, photographs, and writings highlighting broader issues related to urban waters. People’s Pool project is a design proposal for the renovation of the Kosciuszko Pool in Brooklyn that was part of the recent and inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, “Architecture Now: New York, New Publics,” featuring projects that envision a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable New York.

 

Bio:

Karolina Czeczek is a Critic at Yale School of Architecture and Principal of Only If—, a New York City-based design practice for architecture. Only If’s projects span a range of different types and scales, from interiors, to single- and multiple-family housing, to larger-scale urban planning, research, and speculation.

 

Only If has been recognized as part of Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard (2022), Domus Magazine’s 50 Best Architecture Firms in the World (2020), Architect Magazine’s Next Progressives (2019), and a winner of the AIA’s New Practices New York (2018). Only If’s work has been nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (2022). Only If’s People’s Pool project was part of the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, “Architecture Now: New York, New Publics.” Only If is also a winner of the Big Ideas for Small Lots competition, organized by NYC HPD, to develop affordable housing on the narrow lots in New York City.

 

Czeczek has previously taught core and visiting design studios, and seminars at the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, the University of Kentucky, Pratt Institute, and the University of Cincinnati. Czeczek is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Wirt Winchester Travel Fellowship from Yale School of Architecture. Czeczek is a registered architect in the Netherlands and Poland and previously worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and Hong Kong.