About

DoFA Organizer

Association of Polish Architects, Wrocław Branch (SARP)

 DoFA Organizing Committee 

Maciej Hawrylak – General Director, member of SARP Wrocław Branch

Daria Kieżun –  Programme Director, President of SARP Wrocław Branch

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Who are we?

DoFA is organized by the Wrocław Branch of the Association of Polish Architects (SARP), an organization with 75 years of tradition, bringing together leading architects of Wrocław and Lower Silesia (almost 300 members). One of our primary objectives is to promote high quality public space in which architecture plays an important role, as well as to actively influence development of spatial order – a generator of urban environment top standards. Among our most important goals there is also a promotion of good architecture and a common architectural education.

Why DoFA?

Our intention, while creating DoFA in 2011, was to meet a social demand for a cyclic event dedicated to architecture and related fields which the existing calendar of events in Wrocław and Lower Silesia previously lacked. In order to fill this gap we undertook a great challenge of offering to the DoFA recipients a program that would be attractive and, at the same time, accessible in terms of reception, and which could also contribute to a broader discussion about the condition of architecture in our city and the region.

What are the goals?

In addition to our principal objective which is to promote high quality standards of public space, DoFA is also involved in documentation and in-depth analyses of architectural achievements in our region as well as promotion of architectural creation as a cultural activity. We want to award exemplary achievements in architecture, urban planning and related fields, as well as to present a wide range of issues related to spatial order creation. We would like to draw the attention of local communities to our common environment and to encourage them to become its active co-creators. We hope that in the midst of the festival activities everyone finds something that will enable them to better understand architecture - as our goal is to raise general architectural awareness and promote the idea of ​​a culturally rich and sustainable environment.

What are the activities?

DoFA offers a wide range of activities of various nature, addressed to the widest possible audience, such as: exhibitions of works submitted to Festival’s competitions, thematic exhibitions, lectures, public debates with professional participants, seminars and visits to interesting buildings in selected cities of Lower Silesia. Among the accompanying events there will be also film screenings, concerts, workshops for children and youth, performative activities in public space, presentations of technologies as well as industrial products, and many more. 

For whom?

DoFA is addressed to everyone: not only professionals in our field but to all those who are interested in development of Wrocław and other Lower Silesian cities where the Festival will take place. Our program is also addressed to those who, even for a moment, would like to reflect on what we can do together for our local environment, or those, who simply want to experience the adventure of architecture - the ancient and the modern. We invite residents of Lower Silesia and Wrocław - daily users of public space - as well as architects, planners, investors, historians, critics of architecture and art, institutions and authorities– both local and regional - NGOs, industrial production representatives and distributors, as well as pupils and students - the cities’ future.

When?

The Lower Silesian Festival of Architecture (DoFA) is a periodic event which takes place in the first weeks of October. The first DoFA edition, which was held in 2011, aroused great interest among the audience.

Where?

Most of DoFA events take place in Wrocław, however, other Lower Silesian cities, including those investments of which have been awarded or honored in our competitions, also host some of the festival’s activities.

Documentation

Each DoFA edition is immortalized in a form of the Festival’s catalog - a compendium of knowledge about architectural achievements of creators from Lower Silesia, as well as a presentation and a documentation of a number of interdisciplinary activities scheduled in the Festival’s calendar. The catalog is distributed among invited guests as well as accredited DoFA participants - architects, developers, producers, distributors, critics of architecture, media representatives, observers and representatives from business and political circles.