“Architecture is like a human being, it withers away without care or attention.”
- Łukasz Pałczyński

Terytoria Kultury || Culture Territiories from Natalia Kobylinska on Vimeo.

Sometimes it can take the smallest of interventions to make one realise how precious an architect’s contribution to the community can be – and also remind one of the primary role of the profession: to make people’s lives just a little bit better. This beautifully shot film documents the results of one of the 2017 selected Call for Ideas projects by a young collective of creatives from Warsaw calling themselves “Terytoria Kultury” (“Culture Territories”).

The group’s aim is to reveal the potential found in out of the way locations and to have an effect on local societies, thus implementing change in the minds of the audiences. They do this by creating small-scale installations through workshops with artists of various disciplines. In the belief that “valuable change can be made only by taking small steps”, they created an installation and performance in a tiny, old, abandoned local church, in Baligród, a small village with less than 1,500 inhabitants in Podkarpackie, Poland. The project also highlighted the huge discrepancy between cities and rural areas when it comes to access to cultural activities.

To optimise time and money, the student collective created an installation from 500 elements, 3D-printed by more than 30 individuals who each owned 3D printers. The finished illuminated installation was hung in the former church and, with the help of locals, benches for seating were installed. Finally, musician members of the collective performed a magical evening concert there. For some villagers, say the organisers, this was the first time in their lives that they had been to a live concert.