Accompanying the BUDMA trade fair in Poznań, the D&A Design and Architecture Forum will be held this year on February 1-2 (on the stage of pavilion 3A on the grounds of the Poznań International Fair) under the highly topical slogan "Renewal — consciously about energy." The event will be hosted by Jakub Glaz, architecture critic and editor of A&B.
There is not only a profound sense in restoring and finding new functions for existing buildings and spaces — it usually means lower environmental costs and an opportunity to appreciate the efforts of previous generations of architects and builders or urban biodiversity, but it is also a chance to face new challenges — material, legal, design, teamwork. What's more — adaptation doesn't necessarily mean giving new life to buildings, layouts and places, but making these investments sustainable, able to transform in the future. Such flexibility of function magnifies our resilience to the social, economic and climatic challenges of today, the organizers explain the theme of the forum.
The challenges and opportunities of adapting existing facilities and spaces using very specific examples on the first day of the forum will be discussed by:
Bogna Świątkowska and Bartosz Byczkowski, who will take a look at the process of de-flattening Plac Defilad in Warsaw and consider the possibility of implementing this method in other spaces,
Maciej Frąckowiak and Monika Lemańska will analyze the process, carried out by the WXCA studio, of restoring the grounds of the 19th-century Ulrich Gardens in Warsaw's Wola district to residents,
and Rafał Grzelewski of the Grupa 5 Architekci studio, who will tell event participants about the Monopolis project — the adaptation of former factory buildings in Lodz to new functions.
On the second day, debates await the participants of the event. Małgorzata Tomczak, editor-in-chief of A&B, will talk about the most interesting spaces realized in Poland in the spirit of re-use with Aleksandra Wasilkowska (Pracownia Architektoniczna Aleksandra Wasilkowska), Maciej Franta (Franta Group Architects) and Łukasz Pancewicz (A2P2 architecture&planning). You can read more about this panel here.
The next debate will be moderated by Jakub Glaz. He will discuss the challenges of modernizing housing estates from the second half of the 20th century in the panel „Estates to Regenerate!” will be discussed with Agata Twardoch (Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology) and Paulina Duch-Zebrowska (Faculty of Architecture, Gdansk University of Technology).
The forum will conclude with a lecture by Alexander Schwarz of David Chipperfield's Berlin studio, who was responsible, among other projects, for the Neues Museum and James-Simon-Galerie Museum Island in Berlin, as well as the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach and the Folkwang Museum in Essen.
event program
You can find more information about the event here, and the BUDMA trade fair program here.
