KSIĘGA LASÓW
An interactive multimedia journey through 25 forest complexes across Poland.
TWENTY-FIVE FORESTS.
ONE BOOK.
Poland's forests are within an hour's reach from anywhere in the country. Yet nearly 40% of the population reported not visiting one in the past year.
Księga Lasów set out to change that — not through persuasion, but through form. Each chapter was a standalone interactive reportage built around a specific forest region: its ecology, its history, its people, its hidden places. The word "księga" — book — was deliberately archaic. Evoking weight, permanence, something worth preserving. The form inside was entirely contemporary.
The chapters covered everything from partisan burial sites and pagan stone circles to beaver dams and abandoned iron foundries. Raptor rehabilitation centers and centuries-old oaks. The forests were not backdrop. They were layered territories — ecological, historical, and human simultaneously.
"We combine a love of nature with modern technology. In a unique, interactive form we show 25 forest areas across all of Poland: plants, animals, and the people who care for them."
— Jakub Górnicki, 2016
THE FORESTS
Each chapter was a standalone interactive reportage. Reported on location with foresters, ecologists, and local guides.
LASY BIRCZAŃSKIE
Subcarpathian forests along the San River valley
LASY OLSZTYŃSKIE
Fire towers, beaver sanctuaries, and raptor rehabilitation near Olsztyn
LASY MAZURSKIE
Poland's second-largest forest complex — lakes, bison trails, and Gałczyński's lodge
LASY OLIWSKO-DARŻLUBSKIE
From Gdańsk to Hel — dunes, kestrels, and WWII fortifications
PUSZCZA BIAŁOWIESKA
Europe's last primeval lowland forest
PUSZCZA KNYSZYŃSKA
Beekeeping traditions, ecumenical trails, and owl sanctuaries in Podlasie
LASY ELBLĄSKIE
Coastal forests of the Vistula Lagoon
INSIDE THE FORESTS
Dąb Bartek — 28.5m tall, trunk circumference 9.85m
Gołoborze — ancient scree field, Świętokrzyskie Mountains
Fire watch tower — Lasy Olsztyńskie
Barania Góra — ravine trails in Puszcza Świętokrzyska
Beaver haven on the Pasłęka River — Lasy Olsztyńskie
NOT NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
WITH CAPTIONS
Every chapter was built on the ground with foresters and local guides. We climbed fire towers at dawn. We waded through beaver dams along railway tracks. We watched a kestrel released back into the sky after a month of rehabilitation.
The format used interactive scrolling, embedded video, drone aerials, and live transmissions from the field. Each chapter wove ecology, history, and human stories into a single navigable territory.
The goal was not to explain forests. It was to make them feel like somewhere you had never been — even if you lived next door.
"The challenge was to tell the story of forests anew — because, it would seem, everything had already been said about them."
— Jakub Górnicki, press release, 2016
"Księga Lasów polskich w internecie — genialne!"
Antyweb · November 2016
"Księga Lasów to wspaniała, multimedialna podróż po Polsce"
Press feature · 2016