Problems of Garden-City Protection in the Suburban Area of Warsaw

Abstract

The paper aims to present the issues of protection of settlement with features of garden-cities in the suburban area of Warsaw. Howard’s idea of combining the advantages of the city and the village in one was so popular that it also affected Warsaw. In the area of Warsaw-city, as well as in its outskirts, garden-housing estates were built or planned. To this day, in the suburban landscape, these areas are distinguished by a vast content of greenery and small-town character, but the investment pressure is so intense that changes are taking place at a dynamic pace. Often, even the legal protection of these values is not sufficient to resist these urban processes. Thus, the purpose of the article is to show the problems of protecting settlement systems with the features of garden cities in the suburban area of Warsaw. The research uses the case study research method and critical analysis of formal and legal conditions. Interviews with residents were additional support. The examples given have shown that systems that have been protected for many years, with more stringent regulations, are in a much better position than places whose inheritance is being tried to preserve by introducing regulation now. In many cases, social resistance is so strong that even with evident advantages, it is not possible to introduce protective laws.