Fata morgana

The subject of this year’s OSSA workshop is “Fata Morgana*”. We want to explore the phenomenon of chaos in the urban space - whether we can control it or if it should be generally controlled. We want to examine the subject of urban planning in the context of both micro- and macro-scale.

The starting point for our project is the attempt to examine the Warsaw’s space from the point of uniqueness of its elements and characteristic phenomena. Warsaw is currently being cleaned and prepared for EURO 2012, as well as in connection with the endeavour to receive the “European Capital of Culture 2016” title and with other urban investments.
However, those changes are set in the context of an unconventional city which was rebuilt by its inhabitants and suppressed by forty post war years. What is more, it was a city created by a spontaneous chaos of small investments associated with the inhabitants’ needs during the last two decades. It represents the vision of Warsaw, created by the architects, town planners, office workers and the present generation of inhabitants. We want the chaos to clash with chaos.

It is our aim that by the dialogue of architecture with science and modern technologies, new conceptions are created. They would show the alternative thinking and the possibilities to use the potential of places, in agreement with inevitable development of the city.

We are searching for the way of thinking about the vision of this city, as this vision is currently apparent, just like the mirage.

*A Fata Morgana is an unusual and very complex form of mirage.