On 17-19.10 and 14-16.11.2025, Łódź will host for the fifth time the only festival in the country dedicated to architectural ornamentation – DetalFest. The current edition will include 10 presentations by renowned researchers and popularisers of architecture and a dozen accompanying events, including workshops for adults, walks and exhibitions. This year’s edition of DetalFest takes place under the theme ‘Architecture of interwar Poland’.
The aim of the event is to popularise issues related to architectural detailing, treated as broadly as possible – from the ornamentation on buildings, through symbolism, to the materials or technology of their manufacture.
This year’s edition is being held under the theme ‘Architecture of Interwar Poland’. Our aim is to draw attention both to the nature of the circumstances in which this phenomenon arose, the multiplicity of its stylistic and ideological incarnations, and the similarities and differences between the realisations erected in various parts of the territory of the Second Polish Republic in the years 1918-1939,” says Maria Nowakowska, programme director of the Festival. – Particular attention will be paid to making the architecture of Łódź’s interwar period, which often remains on the margins of researchers’ and amateurs’ interest in modernism, visible and recognisable.
The Festival’s speakers include both academics and people involved in the popularisation of architecture outside the walls of universities. The range of topics is broad – from noble plasterwork to art deco styling and industrial architecture.
We often look for interesting realisations of modern architecture outside of Poland, visiting France, Germany or the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, many phenomenal buildings are waiting to be discovered in Kujawy, Włocławek, Łódź or Krakow. The latter city is distinguished, for example, by the use of sculptural emblems over the entrances to buildings. So we can immediately admire not only the craftsmanship of the inter-war architects, but also of the sculptors. Architecture is the most common of the arts, it surrounds us every day, and it is worth learning to consciously draw from it – both satisfaction, knowledge and inspiration for further discoveries. This is what the DetalFest Festival is all about.
In addition to speeches, the organisers have prepared a number of accompanying attractions. There will be free craft workshops for adults, photographic exhibitions, as well as walks showing both the façades and the normally inaccessible interiors of modernist buildings….
The main festival events will take place in the spaces of the event’s partner, the University of Łódź, in the Alfred Biedermann Palace near Manufaktura. The DetalFest is organised by Maria Nowakowska, acting as Maria from Detal, and the 2035 Foundation.
Partners of the 5th edition of the DetalFest Festival: University of Łódź, “BIBUŁA” – TAJNA DRUKARNIA by Józef and Maria Piłsudski, Design Lab Group, Łódź Branch of the Regional Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland.
Patrons of the event: National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Rector of the University of Łódź, Marshal of the Łódzkie Region, Mayor of the City of Łódź, Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Łódź.
Media patrons: Spotkania z Zabytkami, Autoportret, Architektura-Murator, White MAD, Notes na 6 Tygodni, Kalejdoskop, Weranda, Czas na wnętrze.
Co-financing: The task “With Plaeschkas in the coat of arms” was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the programme of the National Heritage Institute – Together for Heritage. The task “Łódź modernism – promotion of the overlooked potential of the city”, within which this year’s DetalFest takes place, is realised thanks to funding from the budget of the City of Łódź.
source: press materials
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