Urban prototyping. Polish projects changing public space in Zagreb
7.05-12.05.2019 Nokola Tesla Museum of Technology in Zagreb, exhibition organized as part of Zagreb Design Week 2019
Exhibition curator: Pavel Grobelny
Urban Prototyping is an exhibition presenting a selection of the most interesting small-scale designs for specific Polish public spaces. For several years now, one can notice a great interest in urban space among both designers and design students. More and more small design interventions are appearing, which are best described as micro-improvements. Their primary task is to improve the use of public space, raise the quality of that space, and solve specific problems observed by the designers themselves.
Public space is becoming one of the leading design themes in recent times. The range of topics undertaken by designers includes both purely industrial projects (small architecture, urban furniture systems) and social projects aimed at a specific audience in the city. Some of them have the character of systemic solutions with the possibility of introducing them throughout the city, while others are dedicated to specific locations.
The authors of the works presented at the exhibition are both experienced Polish designers and students of Polish design faculties. And a very important aspect of these projects is their interdisciplinarity. When working with public space, it turns out that the knowledge of other specialists outside the field of design is essential. The projects presented at the exhibition were created in cooperation with technologists, physicists, sound engineers, ornithologists, as well as research units of Polish universities. These concrete solutions presented at the exhibition make us realize that more and more often a designer works in a team to respond to real needs in urban space.
The exhibition presents projects dedicated to the public spaces of Polish cities of different nature. Sometimes these projects are of a permanent nature, others were created on the occasion of festivals and have a temporary and testing character, other projects have not yet been implemented, and still others were conceptual projects at Polish universities. Such a wide spectrum of one design field shows us how the topic of public space design in Poland is current and important.
But what most unites all of the exhibits is the response to specific needs in urban spaces and the real improvement of the quality of public space through the micro-improvements already mentioned.
Exhibition curator: Paweł Grobelny
Organizer of the exhibition: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Co-organizers: Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, Zagreb Design Week, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Zagreb
Design of the visual identification of the exhibition: Concrete – Marta and Lech Rowińskiski
Coordinator: Magdalena Koltunowicz, tel. 15 842 02 07 w. 15, e- mail: mkoltunowicz@muzeum.stalowawola.pl
The project is part of the international cultural program POLSKA 100, coordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and implemented as part of the 2017-2021 INDEPENDENCE Multiannual Program. The POLSKA 100 program presents the most important achievements of Polish culture of the last hundred years, which continue to inspire artists and audiences around the world.
Funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the 2017-2021 UNPODLEGAL Multiannual Program.
