The Tenants

Photography  |   Architecture   |  Since 2012 (ongoing project)

The Tenants is a photo album portraying the inhabitants of the post-war modernist estates we have illustrated and turned into paper model kits and books for the past decade.

The pictures capture them in front of their brutalist homes – some just renovated, others awaiting proximate demolition. Meet the tenants we had the pleasure of photographing in the cities of the former Eastern Bloc and beyond, such as Berlin Chisinau, Halle Neustadt, Katowice, London, Paris, Poznań, Rostock, St. Petersburg, Wrocław, Warsaw...

‍'Our future is uncertain, they will eventually make us move out... I`m not afraid of changes, I just hope I can afford them' – Shamim from Robin Hood Gardens in London.

'The neigbourhood changed considerably in the `90s and doesn`t feel that safe any more' – Eduardo has lived in Orgues de Flandre`s Tour Prelude for the last 30 years and still says he wouldn`t change this place for any other flat in Paris.

'I will never forget this view, we had all the facilities, hot running water, it felt so modern' – Wiesław from ‘Gwiazdy’ estate remembers the first day he entered his new home in Katowice in the late 1970s.

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Author: Zupagrafika (David Navarro & Martyna Sobecka)
Comissioned contributions: Alexander Veryovkin (photo n. 3) and Mikhail Kalarashan (photo n. 9)
Publisher: All images Zupagrafika © 2012-2020. All rights reserved. (Upcoming Book)