On November 17, Warsaw's ZODIAK Pavilion hosted the opening of the exhibition "Product of Housing," encouraging reflection on contemporary housing as a product of a complex process. The exhibition, available until February 16, 2025, responds to the growing interest in the issue of housing in Poland, especially in the context of the housing affordability crisis.
graphic
© Warsaw University of Technology
The curatorial team from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology decided to focus on the systemic conditions that shape the way our apartments are built. The exhibition does not attempt to offer ready-made solutions to the problem, but instead encourages consideration of how political and economic changes affect the quality of housing and how we live in these spaces.
TBS building in Rybnik. Design by SLAS architects
Photo: SLAS
In the context of the housing crisis, affecting both rental and for-sale housing, the exhibition examines not only the availability of space, but also its quality. The curators analyze apartments built under different economic systems in Warsaw - from the communist era to the present day. They point out that the price of an apartment is not everything. What matters is whether the space we live in meets our needs, affecting our well-being, health and way of life.
Building on PIotra Skargi Street. Designed by Pawel Marczak, Grzegorz Stiasny and Jakub Waclawek
Photo by Kuba Rodziewicz
One of the key themes of the exhibition is the perception of housing as a product. Housing is not only a space to live in, but also an element of the political and economic system, in which its form and quality are the result of regulation, housing policy and the pursuit of profit. From this point of view, the exhibition shows how the housing system in Warsaw has evolved over the years, what changes have taken place in architecture and how these changes shape our daily lives.
Żoliborskie Orchards. Project by Halina Skibniewska
Photo: Kuba Rodziewicz
The exhibition also asks how we want to live in the future. During the October workshop, participants, with students from the Warsaw and Wroclaw Universities of Technology and the University of Arts in Poznan, explored the future of residential architecture. They considered how system changes might affect the space of designed dwellings. They explored three possible paths of development of the housing system oscillating between full commodification and social utopia. The results of these considerations are presented in the exhibition.
Iron Gate
Photo by Kuba Rodziewicz
The exhibition "Product of Apartment" is not only an attempt to understand the past and present of housing in Warsaw, but also an invitation to debate what housing will look like in the future.
Aleksandra Skorupa
Curatorial team:
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Zofia Piotrowska, Łukasz Stępnik, Milena Trzcińska
Organizers:
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City of Warsaw, RZUT Architectural Quarterly
Partner:
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Saint Gobain
Organizational cooperation:
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ZODIAK Warsaw Architecture Pavilion - Monika Komorowska, Wiola Januszko, Artur Wosz, Natalia Cichoń
Exhibition set design:
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Studio Widoki, Łukasz Stępnik, Milena Trzcińska, Dominika Bednarek
Graphic design:
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Marta Lissowska
Scientific development of content:
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Anna Cymer, Malgorzata Mader, Kamil Trepka
Workshop participants:
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Students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, the Wrocław University of Technology and the University of Arts in Poznań
Media Patron:
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Architecture & Business
