Wiktor Zin - Biography

Biography

Zin finished architectural studies at Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza in Kraków. In 1952 he received his doctorate, with further advancement in his professorial degrees in 1959, 1967, and 1979.

He first worked as a teacher's assistant and adjunct at Kraków's Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza (through 1949), and later at the Cracow University of Technology as an adjunct (1954–1959), a docent (1959–1967), and finally as a full-fledged professor, 1967 onwards. Between the years of 1962-1967 he was the dean of the Faculty of Architecture there. From 1962 he headed The Institute of Architectural History and Landmark Conservation.

Alongside his academic work he was involved in events benefitting the city as well as architecture and landmark conservation all over Poland. He was the general architect of Kraków between (1958–64), the director of Studies on the Old City Complex (1960–1975), the head of the Cracovian Conservation Commission (1970–1978), as well as the president and vice-president of the Admirers of the History and Landmarks of Kraków.

In the years 1977-1981 he was the General Landmark Conservator as a part of the Ministry of Culture and Art in the rank of vice-minister. Between 1978-1983 he was the head of the interministerial Commission on the Conservation of Landmark Municipal Complexes. During the 1980s he was a lecturer at the University of Zagreb. A member of the Board of Polish Architects, the Society for the Protection of Landmarks in Poland he was the chairman of its board between1975–1983. Professor Zin was also a member of the Mexican Academy of Architecture. On January 28, 1998, the Cracow University of Technology awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Professor Wiktor Zin is most well known in Poland as the host of the Polish TV series "Piórkiem i węglem" (With Pen and Charcoal). He was also featured in "Klub pod Smokiem" (Club Under the Dragon), "Szperacze" (The Seekers), "Spotkanie z zabytkami" (A Meeting with Landmarks), "Dźwięk i linia" (The Sound and Line), "Być tutaj" (To Be Here), "Nad Niemnem, Piną i Prypecią" (On the Niemen, Piną and Prypeć Rivers) "Spotkanie z prof. Zinem" (Meetings with Professor Zin), "Sztuka patrzenia"(The Art of Looking), "Nasze korzenie" (Our Roots), as well as "Opowieści domu rodzinnego" (Tales of the Family Home). He also hosted radio programs among them "Półgłosem i ciszą" (Half-silent and Quiet) in Radio Bis.

He also designed a number of sets for a number of plays and operas, as well as the author of a number of paintings. Professor Zin also wrote articles for numerous publications both scholarly as well as for the general public.

Towards the end of his life he occupied the position of the Protector of the European Academy of Art in Warsaw, the director of the Polish Board of Urban and Architectural Landmark Conservation at the Cracow University of Technology, the Director of the chair of Art History and Culture at the Higher School of Information Science and Management in Rzeszów, a lecturer at Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza in Cracow as well as the chancellor of the awards council for the medal "Polonia Mater Nostra est".

Professor Zin was active until the end of his life - he died suddenly, a few minutes before eight o'clock as he was preparing for class with students at the Higher School of Information Science and Management in Rzeszów.

The Professor left behind his wife Aleksandra, with whom he had a son Szymon as well as a daughter, Monika.