‘URBAN PROTOTYPES’
Official event of the Design Week Budapest
Urban Prototypes presents a selection of the most interesting small-scale designs dedicated to specific public spaces in Poland. Urban space has for years increasingly drawn the attention of designers and students of design. Small-scale design interventions and micro-improvements have become more and more popular. Their key function is to enhance the utility of public space, improve its quality and resolve problems identified by designers.
Public space has recently become a key topic of design. Designers engage in industrial design projects (small architecture, urban furniture systems) as well as social projects addressed to a community within the city. Some of the project provide systemic solutions applicable across the city while others are dedicated to specific locations.
The works presented in the exhibition come from experienced Polish designers as well as students of Polish schools of design. Their designs are multidisciplinary because work in public space requires the input of other experts. The designs in the exhibition were developed in collaboration with technologists, physicists, sound engineers, ornithologists, as well as research departments of Polish universities. The solutions presented in the exhibition make it clear that designers increasingly work as a part of a team in order to address genuine needs in urban space.
The exhibition presents designs dedicated to different public spaces in Polish cities. The designs are very diverse: some are permanent fixtures; others are occasional, temporary and tentative, for instance dedicated to a festival. Some designs have never been implemented; others are concepts developed at Polish universities. Such a broad range of a single discipline of design highlights the topical and relevant nature of design of public space in Poland.
The common denominator of all these exhibits is that they address specific needs in urban space and genuinely enhance its quality by means of micro-improvements.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the micro-installation in the garden of György Ráth Villa of the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest.
The project is organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of POLSKA 100 – the international cultural programme accompanying the centenary of Poland regaining independence.
Organised in cooperation with the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, Polish Institute in Budapest and Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest.
Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2021.