Our house, our block. Housing estate Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki 1933/2023

Name: Our house, our block. Housing estate Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki 1933/2023
Start: 2023-02-25
End: 2023-05-28
Location: Museum of the City of Łódź

Feb 25 - May 28 2023 ul. Ogrodowa 15

The exhibition "Our house, our block. housing estate Józefa Montwiłła-Mireckiego 1933/2023” is a showcase of a unique architectural layout that was among the first in Poland to implement the concept of a modern residence modeled on European solutions of that time. This innovative project gained particular importance in interwar Łódź - an industrial center plagued by pollution and poor housing conditions.

"Our house, our block. Housing estate Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki 1933/2023" exhibition in Łódź, Poland.

The Zachodni Gallery in the Palace of the Poznański family hosts the exhibition, which has been divided into seven thematic zones. The first zone is a condensed timeline that highlights the rapid pace of construction of the housing estate and the process of forming a new architectural and social order. This zone provides an overview of the first dates included in the exhibition's title.

Modernist projects aimed to achieve synergy between people and place, and an example of the mutual influence of the environment on the inhabitants and vice versa is the artistic, scientific, and propagative activity of the famous inhabitants of the colony in Polesie Konstantynowskie, which is signaled in the second part of the exhibition. The third zone shows the ideological, European, and local context of the construction of the housing estate, which was in line with the modernization practices of the Second Polish Republic. The housing estate was also an important voice in the discussion about the shape of collective residence. It represented Poland at the exhibition Die Wohnung für das Existenzminimum (The Smallest Apartment, Frankfurt, 1929) together with two well-known foundations today - the Warsaw Housing Cooperative and the Gdynia Housing Cooperative.

Although the housing estate did not radically change the poor housing situation in Łódź, it established new housing patterns and urban practices that are presented in the architecture zone, which is the central point of the exhibition. According to modernist visions, buildings were to regulate not only living matters but also serve higher social goals, such as forming citizens engaged in public affairs. This was achieved by limiting the space intended for apartments and moving many activities to shared rooms, such as a laundry or drying room. Attention was also paid to the care of the youngest residents, their education, and ways of spending free time. The last two zones of the historical part of the exhibition focus on apartments - their equipment and arrangement, as well as the community living in this modernist functional housing estate.

The exhibition's contemporary portrait of the diverse and active community of the Osiedle im. Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki complements the main content, which is focused on the period before the outbreak of World War II. After years of oblivion, on the 95th anniversary of the erection of the first buildings, the Museum of the City of Lodz and the Urban Forms Foundation want to support the residents in their efforts to restore the memory and due recognition to this unique architectural concept. Today, the estate is a monument, but also a living urban tissue, important for the activities of local activists. The awareness of the past of this place, which is nurtured through the exhibition and accompanying events, supports the construction of identity and creates the genius loci of this place.