EC1 — From Municipal Power Plant to Cultural Engine
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
Listen
Transcript
EC1 began as Łódź’s first municipal power plant in the early twentieth century, supplying electricity to a city already shaped by private factory power. Electricity changed production, transport, lighting and domestic life. The complex later lost its original industrial role and was converted into a cultural and science centre. That transformation is more than architectural recycling. Łódź has repeatedly used obsolete industrial infrastructure to create a new economy based on education, events, design and tourism. EC1 makes the energy transition visible: coal-fired machinery once powered factories; now the same brick and steel shell powers the city’s post-industrial image.