Kitsch in architecture - Contemporary Polish hotels

Abstract

Kitsch has become embedded in the landscape of Polish cities and villages and is especially well represented in the architecture of hotels. It portrays society's relentless yearning for the wealth and tradition of extensive old-style mansions combined with economical building materials, restrictions of computer aided design and the desire to pander to mass tastes. In effect, there are produced over-scaled, not ergonomic, cheap accommodation facilities, filled with plastic and gypsum ornaments, which are unfamiliar to local culture. Drawing on a number of case studies this paper investigates the causes of kitsch manifestation and its effect on the surroundings and proposes methods of protecting the urban and rural landscape from devastation. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.