5 years anniversary of Atelier Starzak Strebicki

I spent January in my home town in Poland. I thouth that is a good opportunity to discover local market and find out what is happening there. The most interesting project which I found was development of one of the squers in Poznan. The autor of the project is Atelier Starzak Strebicki. The company has fifth anniversary in this year. Due to this occasion they organised lecture about their work. I could not miss the opportunity to find out something more about their work.

The owners of the company are two young people – Jola Starzak and Dawid Strębicki. They talked about their work year by year. I payed my attention to 3 project about which I would like to write a bit more today.

First of them is a public space designed for Malta Festival*. The way of work public space is always interesting topic for me. This example shows us how, by using simple elements, is possible to brisk sad townscape. The architects emphasize, that the temporary character of project, gave them chance to improve the idea. Let's review what change every year.

The general idea for the space is to create place where the varied events accompany the Malta Festival can be organised. The 2013 is bringing the first version of the area. The square was divided for the small rooms with differents functions. We can find them the dinning area with yellow furniture designed specialy for this occasion. We can notice also the hammocks and sun longers when people who are not interested in events can rest and spend time in nice and colorful setting. The nice initiative was to built the temporary garden with residents of city. In a word, everyone can find something for itself.

Malta Festival 2013, Freedom Squere, Poznan, Poland **

In 2014 the space looked almost the same how year before. Thus, I am jumping directly to 2015. In this year we can notice large green pillows placed under metal construction. The wall of construction are made by pots with plants. Everything is calling pedestrian to stop and spend a bit of their time there.

Malta Festival 2015, Freedom Squere, Poznan, Poland **

The new elements which we can notice in the picture from 2016 are mirrors. This simple things have two tasks. First of them is to make space bigger. The second one is to make an opportunity to play with them.

Malta Festival 2016, Freedom Squere, Poznan, Poland **

The Malta Festival transforms the city to the cultural point in the map of Europe. I encourage you to discover more about this event and maybe, to visit one day.

The second project which I would like to show is set of furniture for Courtyard City Hall in Poznan, Poland. The project involve 20 pots with trees and plants, 14 mobile benches and round bench surrounding flower bed. To see how the small move - adding the furniture to empty squere - can change the place we need to compared picture "before" to picture "after".

BEFORE *** AFTER **

How we can see, the space was using as a parking. Sometimes when I see this kind of spaces, I have strong feelings that we put our cars as a priority and forget about ourself. Fortunetly, someone has taken the action and now, residedents of city can enjoy beautiful squere. What I like in this project is simplicity, full of greenery and the play with the scale of elements. The big benches make an opporunuty to make a community. You can not stay alone there. Definitely, I would feel good in the place and next time when I will be visiting Poznan I will run with a book to spend some time there. Maybe, I will meet someone iteresting on one of the benches.

The third project is not placed in my home town but the idea of it, perfect play with previous two. Namely, it is a developing project of the esplanade of the European Parlement in Brussels. The project was made for the competition. The idea was to create the space to observe and study the different ways the public interacts with the furniture and its surroundings. The architects implemant the area by installation consisting of 100 chairs, 10 tables and 50 plants which composition will be change in interval. I look forward to check the resoult of this experiment.

The esplanade of the European Parlement in Brussels, Belgium **

The projects which I showed you today, have a common point. All of them show the possibility of changing existing space. It is not neccesery to rebuilt whole city to create nice and friendly area for people. This areas are already around us. We just need to use our imagination. All of the spaces are calling to stop and spend time there, by shape and colours of simple elements. The second characteristic thing is multiplicity of plants. It is a receipt for succes.

I hope that I will have the opportunity to check the work of the design studio in next 5 years and I will find more inspiring accomplishment. I wish lots of luck in the future for this duet.

---

* Malta Festival Poznań (until 2009: Malta International Theatre Festival) - international theatre festival held annually in June or at the turn of June and July in Poznań, Poland, since 1991.The name Malta derives from Lake Malta located in the center of Poznań. It is one of the most important artistic events in Central and Eastern Europe and highly expected by the inhabitants. It focuses on the outdoor and experimental theatre. Gradually the festival has expended its interests and became an overview of not only international theatrical acts but also music, dancing and even film. Most of the performances is shown directly on the streets all over the city (source: wikipedia.org).

** source: http://www.starzakstrebicki.eu/

*** source: https://www.google.co.uk/search? q=urz%C4%85d+miasta+poznania+parking&rlz=1C1PRFC_enPL691PL691&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiv_cipnvbRAhUJJcAKHamBAY8Q_AUICSgC&biw=1360&bih=638#imgrc=92aIcsrvRLvwQM:

(Fot. Tomasz Kaminski / Agencja Gazeta)

.

#architecture #landscapearchitecture #publicspace #lecture #Poznan #Poland