The historic centre of Gdańsk, totally destroyed towards the end of the Second World War, became an area of postwar creation of a socialist town. During over a dozen first years, three projects were prepared for implementation within its borders, first in the convention of reconstruction and rest simply as development, for three consecutive historic city complexes: The Main Town (1948), The Old Town (1955) and The Old Suburbs (1958), thanks to which the historic Gdańsk centre has become a unique and clear example of the development of urban idea of the Polish People’s Republic, associated with the issue of rebuilding the historic old town complexes destroyed during the Second World War. Putting together three such assumptions, representing subsequent, chronologically appearing stages of evolution of socialist urban planning theory, is a unique phenomenon and should be treated as a value in itself. Unfortunately, this heritage of the Polish People’s Republic period, although to some extent referring to the prewar structure of the destroyed town, is not taken into account in the urban planning policies of Gdańsk. What may still be called a clear record of creating a socialist town is beginning to be erased and in a few years’ time there is going to remain only a vague memory of it. It is obvious that today, in the area of the former Eastern Bloc, we are facing a challenge of transforming a socialist town. However, it is vital that that the consciousness of the history of its creation and development becomes for us a starting point for the contemporary urban planning work. Transformation must not mean rejecting the past and the associated heritage!
Authors
Additional information
- Category
- Publikacja monograficzna
- Type
- rozdział, artykuł w książce - dziele zbiorowym /podręczniku w języku o zasięgu międzynarodowym
- Language
- angielski
- Publication year
- 2015
