Architect and urban planner Bogdan Wyporek has passed away

An outstanding specialist with international experience, engineer Bogdan Wyporek, has passed away. He collaborated with the International Cultural Centre on the exhibition “Skopje. City, Architecture and Art of Solidarity”. He was the chief designer of the reconstruction of the eastern industrial district of Skopje after the earthquake and often spoke about using the experience of post-war reconstruction of Warsaw in creating urban plans for other cities, e.g. after natural disasters.

Architect and urban planner Bogdan Wyporek passed away on 29 October 2025 at the age of 97. A graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, he was president of the Association of Polish Town Planners, vice-president of the International Society of City and Regional Planners and the European Council of Town Planners, and an honorary member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in the United Kingdom. For 40 years, he was involved in planning the development of Warsaw. His experience in rebuilding the capital helped him to create urban plans for Skopje after the earthquake. For many years, he served as a UN expert on urban planning. He was involved, among other things, in work in Chimbote, Peru, also destroyed by a natural disaster, and in Libya's spatial development plan.

Bogdan Wyporek was the winner of numerous awards and distinctions in urban planning competitions, as well as the author of many articles and expert opinions in the field of urban planning and spatial planning. He was honoured with, among others, the SARP bronze badge in 1966.

In the publication accompanying the exhibition at the ICC “Skopje. City, Architecture and Art of Solidarity” (International Cultural Centre, Krakow 2019, p. 50), in a conversation with Pavel Veljanoski, engineer Bogdan Wyporek talked about using the experience gained from the reconstruction of Warsaw, which was bombed in 1944, in the preparation of urban plans for other cities:

– "Our cooperation did not end with Skopje. Five years later, there was an earthquake in Peru, in the town of Chimbote. The Peruvian government asked the UN for help with the reconstruction. The UN first set about looking for specialists, but the Peruvians immediately said: “No, we already have our team! Together, they managed to create a plan to rebuild Skopje, so now let them help rebuild Chimbote". And so the UN asked us to create a project group to rebuild Chimbote.