Stop Planning, start acting. Hack the public space
I am a graduated architect. I have work experience in industrial design, graphic design, interior architecture, and architecture. I finished my Ph.D studies this year at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw. The title of my thesis was Stop planning, start acting. Socially engaged low-cost projects in public space. I was a co-owner and designer in No Studio (we were participants in Future Architecture Platform in 2017). I am a co-owner of the publishing house Unpublished where we publish works from architecture and design disciplines. I am also working at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, teaching in Interactive Space and Objects Design Studio In my research and artistic work I am mainly focused on guerilla urbanism, street art, and temporary architecture. I am mainly a practitioner but also a researcher, engaged in didactics. I was a tutor in different workshops and lecturer at events, such as Tirana Architecture Week, Mood for Wood, BINA/FAP Conference Belgrade Outskirts, and Doconf2019 in Budapest among others. I was also invited (as No Studio) to the workshops and exhibition participation by MAXXI Museum. I was a co-organizer and co-author of the exhibition "Empathic design. Technological concern for a better tomorrow" which was presented in Wroclaw and Lodz and will be presented this year in Czong Institute of Contemporary Art in Seoul.
I would like to develop my Ph.D. works which were a part of my thesis. In my present activity as a designer, I am strongly committed to developing an approach of spontaneous interventions in public space that not only solves observed problems but also inspires to act and highlight the issues in an urban environment.
After implementing interventions and defining specific design processes on how to "hack" space I would like to develop and test this idea in different circumstances, areas, and cultural backgrounds. In every city, we can find some space to improve, there are problems to solve or people to inspire or who need tools and knowledge to act by themselves.
I am open to working as a practitioner with some interventions in public space but also as an educator, workshops tutor, or curator of the exhibition focused on low-cost spontaneous design works.
Below I am presenting part of my Ph.D thesis description:
In the dissertation, the author mainly relied on the method of research in practice. Projects implemented by the author are discussed. These projects aim to maximize the quality and usability of space while keeping the cost of implementation as low as possible.
An important effect of this publication is to change the public's perception of public space, pointing out to them its potential, which involves the conscious involvement of the users themselves or the authorities in better shaping urban life.
The author promotes the idea of prototyping projects in the public space and implementing the Agile approach and Human-centered design rules into the public space design process, also being inspired by DIY, guerilla urbanism, tactical urbanism, placemaking, or culture of protest.
The author also believes that the role of design is not only solving practical problems but also inspiring change, pointing out social issues, changing mentality or just educating.
Everyone can design. This is the only way to avoid to be designed.