FOPA 2025. the Konior Studio, PL.architects and Analog from the kitchen

Ola Kloc

11 of April '25

11th edition of the Architectural Studio Festival

FOPA 2025 Summary

LIVE rebroadcasts of the meetings are available on our channels

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The eleventh edition of the Festival of Open Architecture Studios - FOPA - is behind us. Organized by A&B, the event is an opportunity to take a look from behind the scenes at the functioning of respected studios in Poland and abroad, to learn about the working methods of architects and architects working in them, and a chance to ask questions. This time we visited offices in Katowice, Poznan and Szczecin.

Konior Studio

We started ourtour of the studios in Katowice, where we visited Konior Studio, Tomasz Konior's own studio, which is located in a 19th century brick building of a former watchtower. Filled with memorabilia and memories, the studio's office is a place for meetings, conversations and creation, creating - as Tomasz Konior emphasized - tailor-made architecture. The team (which, as it turns out, is very musical!), known primarily for creating buildings for music, is thoroughly imbued with a passion for this art - through the windows of the studio, the architects look at the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy building, an edifice of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music. Through the windows of the studio, the architects are looking at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, a building which they expanded as a result of winning a competition and which became a symbolic beginning of their musical adventure, later continued, among others, in the iconic design of the headquarters of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice or the Music Academy building in Cracow, which is under construction, and about which the designers told a little about during FOPY.

PL.architekci

The next day we moved to Poznań's Jeżyce district, where the PL.architekci studio, run by Bartłomiej Bajon and Katarzyna Cynka-Bajon, has its headquarters in the attic of a building from the 1940s - it's not easy to get to their office, but it's worth it (the space was originally meant to be the duo's apartment - until recently you could even take a relaxing bath in it)! Their main domain is single-family houses, a path they took somewhat by accident, already in their third year of study, when they designed a house as a wedding gift for relatives. During FOPY, the architects also talked about the behind-the-scenes work of the profession - the education system and the lack of practical experience, learning the business on their own, the pitfalls of paid competitions and rankings, the patience required to carry out projects and face bureaucracy, as well as attempts to improve the condition of the profession - balancing work and leisure time, and the hourly billing they have recently applied to their practice.

Analog

The last of the studios we visited in this year's installment of the festival was the Analog office. We were shown around the atmospheric studio in a Szczecin tenement by the office's founder, Piotr Smierzewski. In a family atmosphere and at a common table, we got to know the secrets of architects' work from behind the scenes - literally and figuratively! The team often takes part in architectural competitions, which - although they are a huge financial effort for the studio - are, according to the architects, a great opportunity for development. Interestingly, most of the projects that Analog's designers deal with involve existing architectural substance, as exemplified by both the large-scale design of the Full Life Factory, the new center of Dąbrowa Górnicza, and their own studio, which is decorated not only with mock-ups of projects, but i.... impressive collection of projectors and turntables.

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This year's Open Architecture Studio Festival was a side event to the 5th International Congress on Digital Urban Regeneration in Lodz, a joint initiative of the Open Eyes Economy intellectual and social movement and the City of Lodz.

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