On October 1, the exhibition Humanist modernity: Maciej and Stanisława Nowicki, opens in the Center for Architecture in New York. Alongside the opening, the Center will host a public talk and a guided tour led by the exhibition’s curator, Kacper Kępiński, Deputy Director of NIAiU.
Humanist modernity presents the work of Stanisława Sandecka-Nowicka and Maciej (Matthew) Nowicki, two significant figures in the history of American and Polish architecture. The exhibition takes its title from a concept the two architects developed in the 1940s: modernism as a human-centered approach to design, concerned with understanding who a building is really for and how it binds a person to the space around them. It follows this idea across their work and asks what their architecture offers us today.
The exhibition will be on view at the Center for Architecture (536 LaGuardia Place, New York) from October 1, 2026 to March 27, 2027.
Upcoming events (all times local, New York):
October 1, 6:00 pm – Fall Exhibitions Opening Night
An opening celebration for all three exhibitions, with remarks from each exhibition team and light refreshments. Opening night is also the unofficial kickoff of Archtober, New York City’s month-long celebration of architecture and design.
October 6, 5:30 pm – Nowicki’s Unbuilt Chandigarh: An Ecology of Everyday Life
A talk on Maciej Nowicki’s plan for Chandigarh, developed with Albert Mayer and left unbuilt after his death in 1950. The plan treated shade, orientation and planting as the framework for daily life, and read alongside the Nowickis’ wider body of work it describes a modernism in which responding to climate and responding to community are the same design decision. Speakers: Kacper Kępiński (NIAiU) and Karolina Częczek (Only If; Yale School of Architecture), Evangelos Kotsioris (Director, Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment), Catherine Seavitt (FASLA, FAIA, Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Stuart Weitzman School of Design).
October 9, 6:00 pm – Exhibition Tour with the curator
A guided tour of Humanist modernity led by Kacper Kępiński.
All events are free and take place in person; registration is available through the Center for Architecture website
This Exhibition is Supported by:
The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of Governor and the New York State Legislature
Program is supported by Polish Cultural Institute New York.