Exercising modernity

The architectural heritage of the second half of the 20th century is currently attracting growing interest, not only among researchers and architects, but also within civic movements, urban initiatives, and architectural tourism. The former Eastern Bloc is particularly fascinating in this context: designed under ideological supervision and in a centrally planned economy, postwar architecture nevertheless developed into a field of modernizing ambitions and creative experiments.

This new attention is also an expression of a change in social perception in Eastern Europe: while post-war modernist buildings were still widely regarded as symbols of the gray everyday life of state socialism until the 2000s—even if they originally dated from the interwar period—they are now the subject of aesthetic and epistemological curiosity.

An outstanding example of this is Katowice, a post-industrial city that developed into a laboratory of modern architecture and urban planning after 1945. Here, at the interface between the history of industrial Upper Silesia and the new post-war state, architecture became a medium that told the story of politics, social change, technological progress, and cultural transformation.
This context forms the starting point for the discussion “Young Heritage: Architecture and Identity of Post-Industrial Cities” and the book presentation by Dr. Jakub Bródka, Katowice. Architectural Guide. Architecture after 1945 (DOM publishers, Berlin 2025). The publication presents the architecture of Katowice as part of a broader European heritage and examines its development in a political and social context.

The discussion in Berlin offers an opportunity to talk not only about Katowice, but also about the architecture and identity of post-industrial cities in Europe—about how the present is redefining our view of so-called young heritage and what challenges this poses in terms of protection, mediation, and reappropriation.

Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDWxdwaCAvvD-T6DwZtdRYAFcSrFNE90W1lXOfvV4gE_vEfQ/viewform

What role do monuments play today? Yesterday’s discussion at the opening of the new Pilecki Institute headquarters in Warsaw touched directly on questions close to our Exercising Modernity community: how memory is shaped in public space, how artistic practice, architecture and history intersect, and how forgotten sites can be brought back into the collective narrative.

If you follow Exercising Modernity, this conversation is for you – bridging art, urban space, memory culture and critical reflection. Stay tuned: the full debate will soon be available on our YouTube channel.