Discussion online on Facebook >> KLICK

 

This year’s online edition of Fokus: Architektur series will focus on the reconstruction of Warsaw after the Second World War – an important topic due to the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Bureau for the Rebuilding of the Capital and one that is not devoid of controversy, both in terms of history and architecture.

 

At the end of WW II, Warsaw, once called the Paris of the North, presented a tragic picture. As a result of actions of Nazi-German occupiers carried out in 1944, consisting in the systematic demolition of the city’s buildings and the liquidation of entire districts, Warsaw turned into a sea of rubble, with single stumps of burned-out tenement houses protruding here and there, whole districts practically ceased to exist. Despite the city being almost uninhabitable, immediately after the withdrawal of German troops people began to return to the capital and the tedious and heroic process of rebuilding the city began, which resulted in recognition of Warsaw’s Old Town as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1980. But how did this happen? And what happened other equally damaged parts of the city? How did their reconstruction look like, what was the goal? Our guests will try to answer all these questions.

 

Grzegorz Piątek is polish architect, scholar and architecture critic, author of the book “The best city in the world – Rebuilding Warsaw 1944-1949” (2020).

 

Kristien Ring is an architect, curator and publicist, founder of AA PROJECTS Active Architecture, engaged in the production of interdisciplinary projects on future oriented themes in the realm of architecture and urban planning.