Polish pavilion at the 12th Milan Triennial, 1960

Poland’s pavilion at the 12th Milan Triennial, an event with the theme of ‘Home and School’, was commissioned by the country’s Ministry of Art and Culture and prepared by architect Oskar Hansen (1922–2005) with the assistance of textile artist Jolanta Owidzka (1927–2020).
Showcasing more than 400 pieces, including textiles, glass, ceramics, publications, and large architectural photos, the exhibition was created by a team of fifty-nine designers, craftsmen, and architects, who portrayed socialist Poland as a modern welfare state where design could develop beyond the constraints experienced by capitalist societies.
The accompaning catalogue was designed by Hansen himself as a visual essay that combined black-and-white photos with diagrams, short headings, drawings by Jan Młodożeniec (1929–2000), and more. Rather than simply being an illustrative guide to the Polish exhibition, it addressed more universal issues that applied to contemporary societies around the world. In juxtaposing images of the masses with shots of various people, it reflected one of Hansen’s central concerns: the relationship between the individual and society.
Unlike the exhibition itself, the catalogue took a rather critical approach to high-modernist housing and building policy, which, according to Hansen, had failed to solve the problem of designing for the vast majority, because not only did it ignore life’s changes and the diverse needs and desires of communities and users, it was also economically unsustainable. His concept of Open Form was a response to this, aiming to offer residents greater involvement in adapting their spaces.