The organisation of this exhibition (Ogólnopolska Wystawa Architektury Wnętrz, hereafter OWAW) — as well as the subsequent three editions of the National Art Exhibitions (starting in 1950) and the Universal Exhibition of Architecture in 1953 (n.b. almost all of them took place at Zachęta) — was a manifestation of the centralism typical of the Stalinist organisation of artistic life in Poland.