Adam Przywara: Circular Reconstruction: Salvaging, Reuse, and Recycling in Postwar Architecture

This lecture offers a historical perspective on energy and resource conservation in 20th-century construction, moving beyond the sustainability discourse that emerged in the United States in the 1970s. It highlights the essential role of salvaging, material reuse, and mechanized recycling in the reconstruction of European cities following the World War II. This historical reflection will also connect to the present, offering a close look at the circular reconstruction strategies emerging in Ukraine today.

Adam Przywara is an architectural historian and curator, and a 2025 LINA Fellow. He holds an MA in Architectural History and Theory from the Bartlett, UCL, and a PhD in Architecture from the University of Manchester. His doctoral thesis was recognized with the Theodor Fischer Award (2024). After curating a major museum show titled Rising from Rubble: Warsaw 1945-1949, he is now completing his first monograph examining the role of reuse and recycling of rubble in the postwar reconstruction of Warsaw.

Image: Mining bricks from the ruins of Wrocław, 1949, Military Photo Agency, National Digital Archive (Public Domain)

The lecture is part of LINA European Architecture Platform program and part of the program of the exhibition Taking More Than What’s There to Give.