Lodzs Urban Initiative Associacion Topografie

The Topography Association was founded in 2007 and since then has been carrying out its mission of strengthening the identification of citizens with their home city Lodz (Łódź). Topografie conducts activities aimed at popularizing participation in urban space, developing the cultural life of the city and reviving the memory of important events from its past. The association organized numerous urban games and ventures devoted to the history of Łódź and created Regional Education Programs. This days Association members focuses on running an unique coworking space “Level Up” (Poziom Wyżej) and a website about history of Lodz: “Miastograf.pl” – The Digital Archive of Lodz.

Miastograf.pl serves both as digital archive and social network. It’s a collection of memoirs, press articles, and souvenirs from Lodz citizens; private archives. Here you will find photos that will help you see how the city has transformed over the years. You can also find interesting newspaper articles connected to respective locations on the map, and browse the sound archives for statements and stories recorded or gathered by Topografie.

Urban games is another pet subject of ours, with many successful projects under our belt. Our team consists of professionals coming from diverse fields and disciplines (geography, pedagogy, history, cultural studies) who also happen to be scout instructors, comedians, musicians, or volunteer workers. Every one of us have this unique passion that makes us want to design and organize more and more urban games.

Since 2010, our areas of activity include education for civic society and democracy, both in Lodz area and beyond. We design and carry out information campaigns, training sessions, promotional events, and the social advisory program for participatory budgeting initiative Budżet Obywatelski, as commissioned by the Lodz Town Council (Urząd Miasta ‎‎‎Łodzi).

Apart from the aforementioned activities, we take part in many other participation and urban redevelopment related projects. When it comes to important social issues, we believe that our role is to discuss, advise and inform, making sure that our voice is heard.

In 2016, we settled down at the first floor of the tanament on 56 Piotrkowska Street. We called the new place “Poziom Wyżej”, which states for “Level up”. It`s not only our office but also a huge space that we would like to share with active Łódź residents. It is used for a coworking room with 15 workstations (and social facilities), a workshop, conference room, and multi-function rooms.