Contemporary processes and the selection of materials in historical urban greenery areas on example from Cracow and Warsaw

Abstract

The paper will discuss urgent and topical problems that affect historical areas of urban open space. Its main goal will be the identification of phenomena which take place within it, and which mainly affect its natural tissue. The article will also contain such aspects like: an analysis of modern trends in revalorisation and the effects of its impact, an analysis of possible preventive measures that can be taken, as well as an evaluation of the influence of environmental factors on the condition of individual types of greenery. The problem of contemporary processes that take place in green areas located in the layouts of historical cities, towns and villages undertaken in the article constitutes a further development of research work that has been performed for many years at the Garden Design and Green Areas Division of the Institute of Landscape Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology. The protection, revitalisation, regeneration and shaping of cultural and natural historical landscapes is a broad subject, in which the diagnosis of currently ongoing negative processes constitutes the basis of appropriately prepared guidelines and, afterwards, design work. The main objective of this article is analysing the changes that occur in material selections in areas of historical urban open spaces, against the background of the transformations of design tendencies, conservation ideas, environmental factors and civilizational needs. The article uses the research material of authors from the areas of Cracow and Warsaw.