Jan Matusewiczarchitect · architectural historian
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences · Anthropos Doctoral School

Architect
and architectural historian

I research twentieth-century Polish architecture, design interiors and exhibitions, and write about art. I combine the historian's method with the designer's practice.

Doctoral researcher at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where I am preparing a dissertation on atrium houses in post-war Poland under the supervision of Professor Małgorzata Omilanowska. Alongside my research I practise as an architect in Poznań and write for the sculpture quarterly Orońsko.

Research Design portfolio
Portrait of Jan Matusewicz
Jan Kamil Matusewicz, MSc Eng. Arch., MA in Art HistoryPoznań / Warszawa
01

Research

History of twentieth-century architecture, architecture of the Polish People's Republic, monumental sculpture, museology.

02

Design practice

Architecture, interiors, exhibition design: from consultation to detailed design and site supervision.

03

Curating and criticism

Exhibitions at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, the Górka Castle in Szamotuły and Poznań galleries; essays for the quarterly Orońsko.

Research

Doctoral dissertation · in progress

Atrium houses in post-war Poland

My dissertation examines the atrium house as a housing typology of the Polish People's Republic: an alternative to the housing block with its own genealogy, Western and Soviet models, built estates and their residents. I am preparing it at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences within the Anthropos Doctoral School of the Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences (since October 2025).

Supervisor
prof. dr hab. Małgorzata Omilanowska
Co-supervisor
dr Aleksandra Paradowska
Profile at the Anthropos Doctoral School

Research interests

  • History of architecture from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century
  • Housing architecture of the Polish People's Republic
  • Twentieth-century interior design and industrial design
  • Twentieth-century Polish sculpture and monuments
  • Museology and exhibition design
  • Art criticism and contemporary art

Conference papers

2026Between Block and House: Atrial Dwellings as a Social Experiment in the Polish People's Republic, 1960s–1980s
Architecture of Challenges: Experiment in Space, the Space of Experiment, Warsaw
2023The Millennium Monument in Gniezno: the influence of space on the reception of monumental sculpture
National Heritage Institute conference on outdoor sculpture in Poland
2021The Vessel in New York: a Structure between Sculpture and Architecture
MEDEA 2021 Mutations, Thessaloniki
2019The double meaning of symmetry
MEDEA 2019 Broken Symmetry, Athens
2018Poznań's ring-and-wedge green system
"Miasto. Temat rzeka", Wrocław University of Science and Technology

Teaching

Poznań University of Technology, Institute of Interior Design and Industrial Design (2022-2025): contemporary art and culture, drawing, painting, sculpture, outdoor studio. Courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students of architecture and interior design. Available to teach in Polish and English.

Publications

Monograph

Józef Kopczyński

"Professors of Poznań Sculpture" series, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznań Press, 2026, 241 pp. Author of the chapters and supplements.

Exhibition publication

Nieobojętny widnokrąg

Tomasz Matusewicz, Jakub Matusewicz; Górka Castle Museum, Szamotuły, 2026. Author of the accompanying publication.

Short paper

Between Block and House

Atrial Dwellings as a Social Experiment in the Polish People's Republic, 1960s–1980s, in: Architecture of Challenges, Warsaw University of Technology Press, 2026.

Journal article

The Millennium Monument in Gniezno

Erosion of the commemorative function and proposals for revitalisation, Architecturae et Artibus (accepted for publication, 2027).

Book chapter

Kawalet i sztaluga w spadku

On the Kopczyński family of painters and sculptors, in: Kronika Miasta Poznania 2024, no. 1 (Painters and Sculptors), Wydawnictwo Miejskie Posnania.

Conference proceedings

The Vessel in New York

A Structure between Sculpture and Architecture, in: MEDEA 2019-2021 Conference Proceedings, University of Gdańsk Press, 2023.

Orońsko sculpture quarterly

Regular contributor since 2019 to the quarterly of the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko: art criticism, essays, exhibition reviews, interviews and artist profiles. Nineteen texts, in Polish; a selection and the full list alongside.

  1. 01Pole sztuki w cieniu hard power (The field of art in the shadow of hard power), 3/2026, forthcoming
  2. 02Józef Kopczyński: in memoriam, 2/2026
  3. 03Hic sunt dracones. Nowe terytoria rzeźby (New territories of sculpture), 1/2026
  4. 04Erwin Wurm. Jednominutowa obsesja i farsa (One-minute obsession and farce), 3/2025
  5. 05Marta Sucherska: monochrom i kolor (Monochrome and colour), 2/2025
  6. 06Sztuka zakorzeniona w miejscu. Xawery Wolski (Art rooted in place), 4/2024
  7. 07Zielony paradygmat (The green paradigm: art and the Anthropocene), 2/2024
  8. 08Rewolucje Magdaleny Abakanowicz (The revolutions of Magdalena Abakanowicz), 4/2021
Full list of textsCollapse the list
  1. 09Kreatorium kolumny stalagnatowej Millennium: interpretacje, 4/2025
  2. 10Kunszt, tworzywo, forma (Craft, material, form), 1/2024
  3. 11„Nie ma tworzenia ex nihilo” (interview with Marcin Berdyszak), 4/2023
  4. 12Datament. Dane halucynują rzeczywistość (conversation with Anna Barlik and Marcin Strzała), 3/2023
  5. 13Króle, pomniki i króliki (Kings, monuments and rabbits), 1/2023
  6. 14Muzea sztuki versus kryzys (Art museums versus crisis), 3/2022
  7. 15Outopos, utopia... (Non-existent places and utopian visions), 1-2/2022
  8. 16Nowojorskie The Vessel. Między rzeźbą a architekturą, 3/2021
  9. 17Immersje [z] konieczności (Immersions of necessity), 1-2/2021
  10. 18Ciągle obecne (Still present: "Forms in Space" at the National Museum in Poznań), 4/2020
  11. 19Ambiwalencja (Ambivalence: Małgorzata Kopczyńska at Galeria Kaplica), 3/2020

Design

I have run my own design practice in Poznań since 2022. From 2023 to 2025 I worked at the TOYA Design studio, with which I continue to collaborate on selected projects.

I tailor the collaboration to the client's needs: from consultation, through spatial arrangement and concept design, to complete documentation with visualisations, the selection of materials and works of art, coordination of specialist disciplines and site supervision.

Selected projects

Office and public interiors, museum exhibitions, refurbishment of listed buildings, residential spaces.

2023-2025Polish Theatre in Poznań: refurbishment of the surroundings, façade and interiors
TOYA Design; preservation of the historic character of the interiors in cooperation with conservation officers, accessibility adaptation, external lift
2023-2025Silver Tower, Poznań: office interiors
TOYA Design; concept, planning and detailed design
2023-2025Bolesławiec Museum: permanent exhibition
TOYA Design; exhibition design
2023-2025Manifest[o] art gallery, Warsaw; café in Konin
projects led independently within TOYA Design
2023Lola restaurant, Nowy Rynek, Poznań
Mili Młodzi Ludzie Architekci; also a print exhibition at Collegium Da Vinci and English-language documentation for the refurbishment of a tenement house on Poznań's Old Market Square
since 2022Own practice: residential interiors and design collaboration
space planning, documentation review, coordination of specialist disciplines, site supervision

Competitions and awards

A competition entry is my laboratory: the place where the history of a site meets a new form.

  • 2023Urban and architectural study competition for the revitalisation of Solidarity Square in Gdańsk (with T. Bekas and A. Maculewicz); scheme included in the post-competition recommendationsSecond prize
  • 2023Functional sculpture commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Polish Dance Theatre and Conrad Drzewiecki (with Professor Tomasz Matusewicz)First prize, built
  • 2023WWF competition for an art installationDistinction
  • 2021City of Poznań competition for the Monument to the Expelled Citizens of Greater Poland (with Professor T. Matusewicz)Honourable mention
  • 2019NON Architecture "Buying", international ideas competition (with K. Melka); scheme published in the competition volumeFifth place
  • 2018"Metamorphosis of Courtyards", City of Grudziądz competitionFirst place, built

Curating

I care not only for the arrangement of an exhibition but for its substance: the place, the context and the text that accompanies it.

I work with artists over the long term, from the concept of an exhibition to the curatorial text and publication. I also run workshops and guided tours.

Exhibition view
  1. 2026Jakub Matusewicz, Tomasz Matusewicz, Nieobojętność widnokręgu
    Górka Castle Museum, Szamotuły. Curator and author of the publication.
  2. 2025Tomasz Matusewicz, Etapy
    Galeria u Jezuitów, Poznań. Author of the curatorial text.
  3. 2024Marta Sucherska, Układ modułów powtarzalnych
    Duża Scena Gallery, University of the Arts Poznań. Curator.
  4. 2024Jakub Matusewicz, Składniki
    Duża Scena Gallery, University of the Arts Poznań. Curator.
  5. 2024Jakub Matusewicz, Czy zmyślam? Nie, ja sobie przypominam
    Project Room, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw. Curator and author of the text.
  6. 2023Jakub Malinowski, Nietrwały znak
    Mosina Art Gallery. Author of the curatorial text.
  7. 2021Proces formy: from the archive of Józef Kopczyński
    Słodownia +1, Stary Browar, Poznań; accompanying the 6th Biennale of Small Sculptural Forms. Curator.
  8. 2021Marta Sucherska, 25 lat 112 dni
    Scena Otwarta Gallery, Poznań. Curator.
  9. 2019OSSA Zakłócenia, National Meeting of Architecture Students
    Co-initiator and organiser, exhibition curator, workshop group tutor.

About

I am an architect and art historian from Poznań. I studied architecture at the University of the Arts Poznań and Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and art history at Adam Mickiewicz University. In my research I am drawn to the moment at which architecture ceases to be a backdrop and becomes a vehicle of memory: the atrium house, the monument, the interior.

Languages: Polish (native), English (C1), French (A2). Tools: ArchiCAD (BIM), AutoCAD, SketchUp, 3ds Max, V-Ray, Enscape, Lumion, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.

Education and work

since 10.2025Anthropos Doctoral School of the Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Art, Warsaw: doctoral researcher
since 2022Own design practice, Poznań: architect and interior designer
2023-2025TOYA Design, Poznań: designer, assistant architect; ongoing project collaboration
2023Mili Młodzi Ludzie Architekci, Poznań: designer
2022-2025Poznań University of Technology, Institute of Interior Design and Industrial Design: lecturer
2019-2023Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań: art history, MA (thesis on the Millennium Monument in Gniezno, supervisor Professor Piotr Korduba)
2020-2022Wrocław University of Science and Technology: architecture, MSc Eng. Arch. (diploma project: Museum of Art in Poznań)
2015-2019University of the Arts Poznań: architecture, BSc Eng. Arch.
Contact

A joint project, a text, an exhibition, an idea?
Let's get in touch.

jan.matusewicz@proton.me +48 664 948 889

I reply as soon as I can. The form opens your e-mail client; the details you send are used only to reply to you.