During two days in November Bureau Detours conducted a workshop for the students at Akademia Miasta in Poznań that revolved around 4 site-specific temporary projects on the streets of the district Łazarz.

Cracks in the architecture is a wide conception that can mean a lot of things, depending on who that defines the term. We asked the students of Akademia Miasta and together we created a common understanding of what the term entails. Cracks in the architecture can be everything from forgotten street corners, abandoned work sites, the unused space underneath an escalator to abandoned buildings and echoing tunnels. The tiny, dark corners of the city where activity and function seems to have been lost.

We gave the students a toolbox of methods they could use to reclaim their city and create the changes they want to see in the public space. With simple tools and left over materials from the surroundings, they were to fill the gaps with temporary installations. By bringing them back to life, new spaces are created for the public to reclaim engaging in activity and reflection. The vision of this workshop was not for the students to create perfect solutions, but to experiment and trying out temporary suggestions for what the public space can be used for, working in a collaborative, bottom up process.