Lifestyle
Lifestyle stories from Central and Eastern Europe, exploring architecture, design, public space, fashion and the everyday places and ideas that shape how the region lives. Discover adaptive reuse, museums, libraries, cultural spaces and the relationship between design and everyday life.
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An airship that gives stories somewhere to land
A steel-and-wood airship sits above Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Gulliver, completed in 2016, provides a setting for encounters between literature and visual culture.…
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A national story at the scale of everyday life
A long museum building meets the landscape of a former military airfield at Raadi, outside central Tartu. Opened in 2016, the Estonian National Museum places…
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The machinery remains: Tallinn’s working cultural backdrop
Two former boilers stand within Tallinn’s Kultuurikatel, a cultural and event venue occupying part of the city’s old power station. The building’s industrial features have…
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Riga’s Castle of Light, between symbol and reading room
The National Library of Latvia gives Riga’s riverfront a recognisable silhouette. Gunnar Birkerts’s building opened in 2014 and carries references to Latvian stories in its…
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Beyond the apartment: Vienna’s other idea of home
A doorway, a courtyard and a place to wash clothes once belonged to the same housing proposition. At Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna, the architecture of domestic…
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A reading room with a landscape above it
The University of Warsaw Library offers two connected ways to spend time: among books and among plants. Its garden opened in 2002, adding a public…
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What does a building for listening look like?
Glass walls and a perforated canopy give Budapest’s House of Music Hungary a strong visual presence in Városliget. Inside, exhibitions, performance and music education occupy…
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Prague prepares to read design through light
Designblok returns to Prague from 7 to 11 October with “Light” as its 2026 theme. Across the Industrial Palace and a wider city programme, illumination…
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What remains when a city becomes a capital of culture?
Trenčín’s year as a 2026 European Capital of Culture is entering its final months. Beyond the exhibitions and performances, the Slovak city is testing a…