Let’s talk about garbage
WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION Academy

  • Let’s talk about garbage

    "Let’s talk about garbage" at the Venice Architecture Biennale, 2016

The project, presented by Kowalski and Szczelina, is about the overproduction of garbage, which is a global problem every country in the world has to deal with.

The modern answer to the overproduction of waste coming from a lifestyle of excessive consumption is recycling. It seems to be the only hope of slowing down the process of covering our planet with garbage. The “Let’s talk about garbage” project is an attempt to show new, alternative strategies for fighting with the waste landslide covering our cities - how architecture can help diminish it and participate in the recycling process.

Hugon Kowalski, the founder of the firm UGO Architecture, was invited to participate in the main exhibition of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, curated byu Alejandro Aravena, titled „Reporting from the front”. Kowalski invited Marcin Szczelina, an architecture critic and curator the co--creator of Architecture Snob, to participate in the project. In his Biennale manifesto Aravena says: "There are some battles that need to be won and some borders that need to be widened in order to improve the quality of the built environment, and therefore to improve people's quality of life. More and more people on Earth are looking for a proper place to live, and this is more and more difficult to achieve. Any attempt to step outside of business interests usually meets with huge resistance in the chaos of reality and we need to make every effort to solve the important prolems of the increasingly complex world”.

The exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale the meeting refers to is open until November 27, 2016.

Hugon Kowalski (1987)

architect. Since 2010 he has been working as an assistant at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Arts in Poznań. His graduation project on the issue of slums in Mumbai, supervised by Robert Konieczny, was awarded the prestigious Archiprix International Hunter Douglas Award for world's best architecture graduation project completed in 2009-2011. He was the first Pole to receive this award. In 2010, as a fourth year student, he opened his own firm - UGO Architecture, which he is still developing today. he has received a total of 27 Polish and international awards. In 2012 he won the first „Archi-World Academy” award for young architects and architecture students. He was the winner of the „International Design Award” in 2008 and 2009, an honorable mention in the contest for a concept for Narutowicza square in Warsaw and winner of a Maciej Nowicki award in 2014. His projects have been exhibited in Seoul, Milan, Bologna and Manchester. He has been an active member of the board of the Poznań branch of the Association of Polish Architects (SARP).

Marcin Szczelina (1982)

architecture critic and curator. Assistant to director Aaron Betsky at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale. Co-creator of the Evento Biennale in Bordeaux (2009). Author of numerous texts on architecture and projects devoted to the state of contemporary architecture. In 2008-2009 he was an editor of "Zawód: Architekt” magazine. In 2012-2015 he was a columnist at the monthly magazine “Sukces”. He co-edited a book titled “Dotknąć muzyki”. Correspondent for the Italian magazine “Domus”. Author of interviews on contemporary architecture for “Monitor Magazine”. Expert for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. Creator of the “Architecture Snob” platform. Founder of Furheart Gallery, an independent space for testing the boundaries of architecture. He is currently working on an English language guide to contemporary architecture which is set to be published this year by DOM Publishers.

See also:

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