Prof. Zbigniew Zuziak, who is affiliated with, among others, the Institute of Urban and Regional Design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology, in his speech brings up the issue of "development ethics" and draws attention to the growing contradictions between the mechanisms of the free market and the actions of public authority and the protection of the public good. He calls finding a common middle ground between these two extremes the primary mission of modern urban planning.
Architect of the City of Wroclaw from 2003 to 2021, Piotr Fokczynski, as coordinator of the New Żerniki WuWA2 project, talks about the planning process from the perspective of this huge undertaking. He emphasizes the presence and participation of architects in the process of creating the urban concept and the mode of work in the form of workshops gathering more than forty people. Also emphasized here is the role of the city, which is responsible for "operational urbanism," i.e. putting ideas into practice, and the city's contribution, such as the land resource or budget for good technical and social infrastructure. Fokczynski also points to the human factor and well-coordinated cooperation and goodwill of both developers, designers and the city, without which even the best theory will not turn into reality.
Among the factors shaping the planning of buildings and cities and shaping our perceptions of architecture, among other things, the pandemic that has taken over the world cannot be overlooked. This is a good example of how an unexpected global factor can drastically change our perception of at least the nearest urban interiors in a short period of time. Hubert Trammer, a Polish expert at the New European Bauhaus Roundtable, tackled the topic of threats and opportunities after the pandemic and talked about how it has set us back in environmental awareness. He points out that we use a lot of disposable masks or gloves, produce a huge amount of garbage, and use more disposable packaging as well. For fear of contracting the virus, more people have turned away from using public transportation in favor of commuting by their own cars. Among the negative effects, he also sees an increasing willingness to purchase property on the periphery, amidst greenery, which contributes to the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The very fact that residents appreciate the proximity of parks or water is, of course, a plus, and there was actually an immediate trend of courting this accessibility.
Anna Kornecka, legal counsel and undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Development, Labor and Technology for 2020-2021, argues that legal and administrative tools for space management can be effective. Their effectiveness depends on several conditions. As the first, he mentions transparency of regulations and respect for them by addressees (for example, investors). As the second, the improvement of the public's awareness of the purpose and benefits of sound spatial management. In her statement, Kornecka stresses that "space is a non-renewable good, it is given to us in fact once and for all, and it is up to us to decide how we will manage it and how we will develop this space."
It's hard not to agree that educating and making the public aware, while not the quickest way to achieve change, in the long run can bring the best result. There is beginning to be noticeable progress on this topic.
It is worth knowing about the existence of the ADE (Architecture for Education) platform. It is the first nationwide educational platform dedicated to the field of architecture and urbanism. ADE's resources include three categories: city - for employees of institutions as well as organizations and local leaders; school - aimed at teachers and educators; and home - created for children and young people and their parents.
The latter includes something for the youngest, such as the task card "NIEMAPA. City of Good Solutions." The creators explain that it is designed for children aged 6-10 and can be used both at home and while discovering the city during walks.
The interesting graphic design and the form of learning through play seem to be a good direction for familiarizing the youngest with the subject of friendly, accessible, aesthetic and environmentally friendly city space and modern architectural, urban, ecological and social solutions in public spaces. The goal stated in the play scenario is "to awaken attentiveness to architecture, sensitivity to the different needs of different people in public spaces, education about existing good practices."
a brief history of traffic engineering in cities
infographic: © transformative-mobility.org
Another noticeable step towards the dissemination of urban and architectural knowledge is the creation of a new inter-university, interdisciplinary postgraduate course called "ARCHI:CULTURE - architectural educator." The direction is co-created by the Faculties of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology and the Gdansk University of Technology, as well as the Pedagogical University of Cracow, and the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning. As one can read on NIAiU's website, "the purpose of the postgraduate program is to educate architectural educators substantively prepared to popularize knowledge about the built environment, in the context of the widespread desire to improve the culture of building and the quality of the space around us." The planned start date for the classes in the second edition is October this year. The classes are mostly remote in nature, making them accessible to interested parties from different corners of the country and beyond. Among the main thematic modules mentioned are introduction to architecture and urbanism, Baukultur and general architectural education, methodology, the role of the educator/mediator, and mediation, participation and accessibility.
Among the lecturers at Archi:culture is Lukasz Pancewicz, formerly a consultant and civil servant working, among other things, at the Municipal Urban Planning Studio in Lodz, and now an urban planner-practitioner leading, together with Monika Arczynska, the A2P2 studio, which specializes in solving complex urban problems. "Health issues have always accompanied city planning. As they grew, housing hundreds and later thousands of people together in a limited area, the challenges of fighting disease grew. Cholera, typhoid, influenza killed hundreds of residents, and early urban planners, watching the growth of large metropolises - Paris, London, New York - wondered how to provide access to clean water, sanitation, light or clean air. Today, the frontline of the battle for sanitary basics has shifted to cities in non-Western countries - temporary slum settlements, refugee camps, villages. The problem of urban health seems solved and contained. Although, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic and, before that, the fight against smog showed that the aspect of urban health has not disappeared and should be constantly taken into account in the practice of urban planners." - notes Panacea.
He goes on to explain that watching over "urban health" is not the role of urban planners: "When discussing urban planning, a healthy city and its role, however, we should not fall into the convenient trap of thinking of urban planners as 'authors of local plans.' Grappling with the issue of a healthy city requires a broader view than the Planning and Zoning Act or plans allow. It is necessary to return to the roots of urban planning - real change in the space and functioning of the city."
It should be emphasized that the author of the statement does not downplay the role of regulations and planning tools. However, he points out that a healthy city begins with regulations, but does not end there: "technical conditions, hygiene and sanitary regulations, technical standards were the first line of defense, setting the rules for building a healthy city. Underlying many of the provisions was the experience of building substandard housing, living in terrible housing conditions that resulted in illness, stress and reduced life expectancy for residents. Hence the important role of provisions regulating accessibility or minimum standards of housing illumination, ventilation, provision of sanitary conditions." We have seen this role all too painfully over the past few years, when we have been in apartments most of the time.
But what about the elderly, who, before the pandemic restrictions were established and after they subsided, spend the vast majority of their day in the comfort of their homes, and whose daily route to the doctor or shopping is an obstacle course? Panacea emphasizes caring urbanism: "a return to thinking about the city is first and foremost a rediscovery of the needs of the most needy members of the urban community. Awareness of these challenges is breaking through to Polish local governments. In discussions conducted by our project team with local government officials of a large Polish metropolitan area, the mental health needs of the young and the growing care needs of the aging were mentioned above all as major development challenges. This is a real problem, the prevention of which is not only the construction of clinics, the provision of therapeutic services, nursing homes or the adaptation of public spaces to the needs of accessibility. To a large extent, it's also about giving community building a chance, including by providing social spaces to combat loneliness - squares and greens, neighborhood houses - or defending against the temptations of privatizing public goods. These are extremely important topics that rarely break through in the current official plans of urban planners."
NIEMAPA. City of Good Solutions, published by Mamy Projekt, illustrations by Maciej Blaźniak (Ładne Halo)
© Maciej Blaźniak
It is also important to understand the importance of the salutogenic approach in modeling the city. This approach emphasizes preserving health rather than restoring it: "healthy cities are not based solely on the availability of municipal and environmental services. Ideas coming out of preventive health research have allowed the idea of "salutogenic" design to be incorporated into the language of designers. This trend had its origin in the concepts of sociologist Aaron Anotnovsky, which were transferred to the architectural field by designer and physician Professor Alan Dilani. In them, the health of residents is determined by reducing the impact of stressors and providing an environment that is characterized by a sense of coherence, manageability, positive stimulation of mental, physical and social well-being. The materialization of these ideas is spatial order understood not just as an empty slogan, but the holistic shaping of the human living environment. In practice, these ideas have been used in medical architecture, and they are applicable at the urban scale. A new field is opened here by the integration of environmental systems design - greenery and cities. It is also a place where the interests of those involved in urban planning, landscape architecture and public health come together." - Pancewicz emphasizes.
How can this pro-health orientation be applied to urban planning? By sticking to the premise that the most important thing is prevention, not cure, potential phenomena, such as population aging, need to be spotted or predicted early. "The key to the health of residents is the overall urban environment in which they live. An ideal environment allows people to maintain a healthy level of physical exertion, living in close contact with nature, with minimized contact with pollution. This is where security can be provided by the local government. This happens through the fight against individual heat sources, measures to protect and shape greenery, maintaining public transportation and building bicycle infrastructure, or taking care to ensure compact cities. These conditions will determine the success or failure of municipalities. After all, with the growing problems caused by climate change and the deteriorating state of the environment, the process of migration to cities that guarantee healthy living conditions will begin to intensify, an example of such a process in Poland is the Tri-City and Pomerania more broadly," - Pancewicz concluded.
Lukasz Pancewicz expressed his openness and willingness to invite people connected with treatment to (co)design, and this statement became a summary of the whole argument. In his own words, "in order to effectively create a healthy city, not just plan it, broad and interdisciplinary thinking and action is necessary. It's a shocking paradox; in the early days of modern cities, healthy cities were created through the intervention of people who were close to preserving the health and lives of their residents, and whose behavior was characterized by broad and often unconventional thinking. These were not necessarily classical urban planners. One such contributor to the foundations of urban epidemiology, for example, was British lawyer, civil servant, activist Edwin Chadwick, who discovered a link between poor sanitation and the mortality and spread of cholera. The result of his discovery was a revolution in London's sanitation. One hundred and fifty years later, the discussion of health in the creation of a local plan is trivialized, reduced to a meaningless agreement with Sanitation. If we want to seriously face the challenge of building a healthy city, we need to re-learn how to work together with those involved in health, epidemiology, care services, measuring ourselves against current and real challenges. Drawing plans is not enough!".
A reunion of participants in the first edition of the interdisciplinary, interuniversity postgraduate course ARCHI:CULTURE - architectural educator; the studies are aimed at substantive preparation for popularizing knowledge about the built environment
photo: A. Czarnota
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The importance of cooperation between different institutions, representatives of various fields of science and learning from the mistakes of predecessors can be summed up in the simple words of Jane Jacobs: "The city will never be understood entirely by one man."
