The third edition of the project: IN THE CENTER at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology

Students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology are carrying out the W CENTRUM project for the third time. In this edition, they focus on broadly defined costs in architecture. Their goal is to take an innovative approach to this complex and non-visual issue

discussion

Photo by Monika Ostrowska

idea

The aim of the project is to verify common perceptions about good architecture, individual investments and practices of shaping urban public spaces. Young architects and architects have thought long and hard about how their generation understands costs. With the project, they want to show that costs are not limited to financial aspects, but also include those related to time, health and stress caused by over-stimulation. For them, costs also include urban heat islands, light pollution and declining biodiversity. Students emphasize that the costs of human activity are borne not only by humans, but also by fauna, flora and fungi.

discussion

Photo by Monika Ostrowska

inauguration of the project

This year's edition began with a discussion at Warsaw's Zodiac Architecture Pavilion on May 8, 2024.Indication of themultiplicity of issues behind the urban slogan was undertaken by the participants of the inaugural discussion, which included Professor Krystyna Solarek, Dr. Renata Giedych, Agnieszka Kowalewska, Joanna Malanowska, Rafał Krenz and Magda Maciąg. The workshop discussion was led by Dr. Anna Cudny and Dr. Artur Jerzy Filip, and the experts' voices were supplemented by the participants of the meeting sitting in the audience. As a result, there were more than seventy tips on the virtual board on where to look for the cost of urban living. The organizers showed that the concept of "costs" - often not obvious and absent from urban discourse - allows one to look at Warsaw in a fresh and creative way. As the curators emphasize, defining something as a cost does not imply explicit criticism, but requires discovering and realizing the complex network of urban dependencies.

poster

© Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology

costs in architecture

The next meeting in the series will take place this Thursday, June 6, 2024, also in Warsaw's Zodiac. This time the discussion will oscillate around costs in architecture. Those attending will learn what is hidden in the price of a square meter of investment and what costs we incur when deciding on a particular construction solution. Is it better to build and arrange for years, or for quick adaptation to new functions? Does nice always have to be new, and why is it worth paying more per square meter so that an area of undeveloped greenery can remain elsewhere? Are we aware of what we are actually buying when we pay for an apartment? Where do the windows, walls, lighting elements, radiators come from, and by what means was the stone that lies on the steps of our staircase obtained and imported? The topic of climate change will also be addressed .