The Polonics Institute, in agreement with the Warsaw University of Technology and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, is carrying out a publishing project entitled "Material culture of the Hutsul region in student albums of village inventories (1924-1939) from the scientific collections of the Institute of Polish Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology". The initiators are employees of the Technical University, who are also co-authors of the study - Prof. Dr. hab. inż. arch. Małgorzata Rozbicka, dr inż. arch. Wojciech Wółkowski, Ph.D. inż. arch. Robert Kunkel Professor Emeritus of the Warsaw University of Technology, Dr. Eng. arch. Alicja Szmelter, D.Sc. arch. Monika Neff, D.Sc. arch. Justyna Zdunek-Wielgołaska.

During wartime operations in Warsaw, the staff of the Department of Polish Architecture, operating as part of the Chair of Polish Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, rescued documents that were in the institution's collection with extraordinary dedication. Fires caused by German bombardments in September 1939 were extinguished at the risk of their lives. During the action, Prof. Dr Oskar Sosnowski - the founder and long-time manager of the establishment - was killed by shrapnel. When the Germans set fire to the faculty building after the Warsaw Uprising, most of the collections were located in the basement. They were then evacuated to Brwinów near Warsaw and further to Piotrków Trybunalski, where they were secured and deposited in the vaults of the Bernardine monastery. When the war ended in 1945, the collection returned to the building of the Faculty of Technology.

The works of lecturers and students of the Department of Polish Architecture, including measured drawings, served as the basis for the reconstruction of monuments destroyed during the war. They also formed, and still form today, the basis for scientific work as well as conservation efforts. In many cases, it is a unique documentation of what has fallen into ruin or annihilation. Now, thanks to the efforts of three institutions - the Polonica Institute, the Warsaw University of Technology and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage - a book will be published. Its aim is not only to present the material culture of the Hutsul Region, as it appears in the materials resulting from the student inventories of 1924-1939, but also to attempt its general elaboration.

One of the co-authors of the study, Dr. Ing. Arch. Robert Kunkel points out that 'in the scientific collection of the Institute of Polish Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology there is, among other things, a group known in terms of form and content as 'village inventory albums'. These albums were created in the years 1921-1939 as a result of field work by students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology who were doing individual summer internships in measuring wooden buildings as part of the so-called Village Inventory Programme".

The study shows the scientifically extremely important as well as cognitively fascinating world of research on Polish rural and township architecture of the interwar period. The authors describe the research programme of the Department of Polish Architecture, which focused on many aspects of the construction of cities, settlements and monumental and rural architecture. The book reveals the unique approach of the students who, under the guidance of experienced research supervisors, carried out survey and inventory work. The scope of the research was extremely broad, covering a variety of rural architectural elements: from Orthodox churches and churches to farm buildings, as well as elements of everyday life, such as furniture and folk ornaments. In addition, the publication contains detailed descriptions of the inventory sites, together with a list of the owners of the respective estates. It is also illustrated with a rich layer of photographs and drawings.

One of the authors, Dr. Ing. arch. Alicja Szmelter, emphasises that "the students completed internships in 32 villages, described 18 villages in their questionnaires (some, such as the village of Dzembronya, three times), inventoried complexes and buildings located in the villages themselves, in hamlets and in the połonie. The inventory attempted to cover the largest possible area of the Hutsul region. Taking the number of 40 villages inhabited by the Hutsul people, following Włodzimierz Szuchiewicz, it can be said that the students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology took measurements in more than three quarters of the villages".

The enormous documentary legacy is intended by its initiators and the book's authors not only to make public the unique resources of the Warsaw University of Technology, but also to become the basis for further research and studies on architecture, construction, lifestyle, culture and heritage.

The work on the publication is being carried out thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from an earmarked grant for current expenditure from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the state budget in connection with the task "Implementation of seven publishing projects" (2023).