Olivia Business Centre is a place of important meetings, also with eminent figures of Polish culture, who share their experience and passion with the Olivia community. These can be an inspiration for anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge about the phenomena taking place in Poland and in the world. Meetings organized regularly in Olivia Sky Club bring together a community of lovers of interesting, intellectual debate.

On November 21, another meeting with the author of the “Olivia Cooltura” series was held, organized by Olivia in partnership with the Provincial and Municipal Public Library in Gdańsk. Our guest was Filip Springer, an outstanding reporter, photographer of the Polish landscape, translator of architecture and “collector of visual absurdities”.

The participants of the meeting had the opportunity to learn about the creation of the author’s latest books and multimedia projects (e.g. “The City of the Archipelago”, “The Book of Delights” or “The Bathtub with a Colonnade”), listen to their key themes, and explore the visions of the development of cities of the future. During a conversation with Monika Bogdanowicz from Olivia Business Centre, Filip Springer analysed the challenges faced by the inhabitants of Polish (smaller and larger) cities regarding the creation of public space in the area of architecture and infrastructure.

The large audience reacted vigorously to Springer’s reflections on the importance of projects that can improve the quality of life of residents. m.in were discussed. legitimacy and the need to build in each of the localities the so-called architectural icons and the role of these objects for the recognition and creation of the identity of cities. The author of “13 floors” was critical of the possibility of a positive impact of the above-mentioned . He also spoke of the chaos in the surroundings of such buildings. He postulated the need for greater focus of city managers on the “background” of architectural symbols, i.e. on the need to create a comprehensive, friendly space.

They discussed the implementation of the vision of a happy life in a city such as Gdańsk or another understood as an agglomeration or metropolis. Olivia’s guest recommended the participants of the meeting to read Charles Montgomery’s book “Happy City. How to Change Our Lives by Changing Our Cities”, which indicates a number of factors that can affect the lives of residents.

WE INVITE YOU TO VIEW THE GALLERY FROM THE EVENT

According to Filip Springer, who draws on the works of other authors dealing with this subject, a happy city is: a green city, a city balanced in terms of transport and optimal ways of moving around it, and, above all, a city whose inhabitants have a real sense that their “place” is developing.

The main theme of the event was a discussion about Filip Spinger’s latest multimedia project, “City Archipelago” and a presentation of the author’s works. For several months, Springer travelled around 31 former provincial capitals, describing their current fate. The project was supported by local correspondents who wrote a blog and created a magazine with articles from and about the cities of the archipelago. The culmination of the journey is the book “City Archipelago. Poland of Smaller Towns”, which was published by the Krakow-based publishing house Karakter.

It contains dozens of stories about what life is like in contemporary Poland. Filip Springer travelled all over the country, from Słupsk to Krosno and from Suwałki to Wałbrzych, to see how the cities that lost their provincial status in 1999 function today. He got to know their history and talked to the locals. He met entrepreneurs, artists, activists and teachers. He visited local workshops and cafés, visited bankrupt factories and thriving businesses, train stations and McDonalds. He asked people what they were proud of in their city, what made them happy and what they would like to change. The book paints an ambiguous, flickering picture of Polish – where anything can happen and nothing is as simple as it might seem. Among the pains, worries and hopes of the protagonists of the reportage, one can also find those that are shared by the inhabitants of the whole Polish – both small-town and metropolitan.

We would like to thank all participants of the meeting for their enthusiastic reactions, interesting questions and time together dedicated to development! We would like to thank our project partners: the Provincial and Municipal Public Library in Gdansk, the Lobster Restaurant (for delicious cookies and warming drinks), StaraOliwa.pl, the Gdansk Community, Radio Gdansk.

See you at the next meetings in Olivia Sky Club, next year, 2018!

Filip Springer (b. 1982)

– photographer and reporter, finalist of many prestigious Polish awardsd literary works. He graduated from ArchaeologyAt the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. He has presented his photographs at individual exhibitions in many Polish cities. He introduced a new topic to Polish reportage: architecture

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Already in his first book, his famous debut “Miedzianka. The Story of Disappearance”, described the history of a small town in Lower Silesia, whichdisappeared from the face of the earth. In the author’s subsequent books (“Ill-born. Reportages on the architecture of the People’s Republic of Poland”, “Zaczyn. About Zofia and Oskar Hansen” or “Bathtub with a Colonnade. Reportathat it’s about the Polish space” – she becomes the main character. Springer writes about architecture from the point of view of its user – an average citizen or an ordinary passer-by – and thus somehow pulls it out of the embrace of specialists.architectsand urban plannersin. Starting from simple questions, e.g. why does the architecture of communist modernism age so badly and why does it arouse such controversy?

An important element ofSpringer’s books arephotographs, which he weaves into the text, often by wayof differenta story that has been developed at the same time (“Ill-Born” and “Bathtub with a Colonnade”). His photoCiasThey are recognizable at first glance: cool colour tones, melancholic distance, effortless painterliness, a bit of irony here and there. As he himself admits, he tries to compose his texts on the same principles as those that govern photographic reportage; in the same wayóB uses closer and more distant planes, rhythm and detail. Although his books are devoted to specific phenomena or figures, architectsóin, they always have a deeper, existential dimension, thanks to which they go beyond an ad hoc description. Springer’s writing has already been appreciated bothCriticsand readers alikeconsider him one of the most talented authors ofhis generation.

Edit. Red. based on a biography from the “Book Institute”