PLANTSTORIA exhibition in Ciechanów
Created at the end of the 19th century by Ebenezer Howard, the utopian vision of “garden cities” lived to see numerous, albeit non-ideal realizations, interpretations and distortions. At times, it also served as a tool for colonizing conquered territories. Barbara Nawrocka, author of the exhibition and scholarship holder of the Exercising Modernity program at the Pilecki Institute in Berlin, looks at the history of the creation of one of Ciechanow’s housing estates, designed and built by the Third Reich during World War II. Similar housing estates, with their distinctive architecture, can be found in many cities in Poland. They are referred to as “post-German” or “Berlinek.”
One of the districts in Ciechanow, designed as a Gartenvorstadt (garden suburb) over time became known as “Bloki” (the Blocks). It was created in the early 1940s and intended to provide a new housing base for officials and their families settling in the capital of the newly established East Prussian district, Regierungsbezirk Zichenau. The original name not without coincidence evokes associations with
Ebenezer Howard’s utopian garden city concept. Huge tracts of land were developed so that the spaces between buildings could be filled with lush vegetation. Today, despite the later densification of residential development, the estate is bathed in greenery.
In the author’s words: “This is a story about a settlement in my hometown. About the difficult heritage and, above all, about the local vegetation and its political entanglement in shaping the landscape of the conquered lands. About the history of the suburb-garden from the perspective of nature, the introduction of <
The exhibition “Plantstoria” was realized by the Pilecki-Institut Berlin in cooperation with the Traffic Design as part of the “Exercising Modernity” program, and premiered during the Weekend of Architecture in Gdynia in August 2024. The Ciechanów installment of the exhibition was created in cooperation with Ciechanow City Hall and the STUDIO Ciechanowski Ośrodek Edukacji Kulturalnej.
Exhibition opening and guided tour with the author:
November 15, 2024, at 5:00 pm
STUDIO COEK Gallery
56a, 17 Stycznia St., 06-400 Ciechanów
The exhibition will be open until December 31, 2024 and visitors can visit it during the gallery’s
opening hours:
Monday – 09:00-19:00
Tuesday – 09:00-16:00
Wednesday – 09:00-19:00
Thursday – 09:00-19:00
Friday – 09:00-16:00
Organizers:
Pilecki-Institut Berlin
City Hall in Ciechanow
Ciechanow Center for Cultural Education Studio