Oskar Hansen’s Programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw

Oskar Hansen’s workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw was established in 1952, after he took over the Studio of Spatial Forms and Planes at the Faculty of Interior Design. Hansen (1922–2005) was a trained architect, and his programme aimed to develop students’ spatial perception and decision-making skills. Exercises included the arrangement of solids on a plane, with particular attention paid to contrast and rhythm. To this end, Hansen developed tools (sometimes with the help of students) such as the ‘rhythm apparatus’, which encouraged students to integrate compositions into the environment by leaving gaps that allowed views of the surroundings. Hansen was a demanding teacher who valued analytical thinking, logic, and mathematical discipline. However, within the framework of his assignments, students were given the freedom to outline their own solutions and thus exercise independent thinking. The workshop was very popular with students. Hansen’s teaching of the Open Form concept transcended the boundaries of architecture (his workshop was moved to the Sculpture Department in 1955) and was further developed by visual artists and experimental filmmakers in the 1970s.