City Space Recycling: The Example of Brownfield Redevelopment

Abstract

In many parts of the world the manufacturing and mining industries have left a huge mark on the spatial structure of entire regions, as well as individual cities. Urban tissue has been growing for years around the dynamically developing industrial plants and mines during the period of intensive industrialization. As a result of industrial restructuring, abandoned and degraded post-industrial areas created problematic places in the structure of cities. Moreover, many of them are located in the direct neighbourhood of the centers of these cities, in the strict urban fabric. Nowadays, in the era of balancing urban development, creating compact, smart and eco cities, one of the important problems faced by city authorities, architects and urban planners is solving the issue of optimal shaping of city structure, including revitalization of post-industrial areas. The article deals with the subject of transforming brownfield areas into modern urban tissue, related to the surrounding areas, and at the same time referring to its industrial heritage. For this purpose, a number of studies were carried out, including comparative analyzes. Therefore, five examples of projects from Europe related to the transformation of brownfield sites for the purposes of industrial and technology parks were selected. This list includes two examples of Polish parks located in Upper Silesia and three examples of areas located in Germany in the Metropolis of the Ruhr Area. Selected areas were analyzed and evaluated in terms of a number of parameters in order to identify the most important factors positively influencing transformations and problem areas requiring the most attention. Based on the results of the case study, a model concept for post-industrial area development was prepared for the purposes of developing an industrial and technological park and recreational areas, complementing the leisure offer for the surrounding residential areas. The location in former Baildon ironworks in Katowice in Upper Silesia was chosen as the place of the conceptual design. Upper Silesia is known as one of the most urbanized and industrialized regions of Poland, which is still struggling with the negative effects of industrial restructuring. Research results indicate that the areas of former mines and production plants, thanks to their strengths, can be attractively transformed into other functions to become again a showcase of the entire city, providing an incentive to learn about the industrial history of the region. The introduction of a diversified program and giving a new character to areas with huge investor potential, helps to return the city to areas of great social, economic and spatial importance.