Revitalisation as a Method of Planning Sustainable Development of Old Town Complexes in Historic Towns

Abstract

Old towns in spatial structures of historic towns are the areas which – same as centuries before – serve as the town centres. This is almost invariably true about small towns especially, as the inner town district is more frequently the site where a town was originally located and is often the manifestation of its historic identity. However, functional and spatial problems of many small historic towns arise from the above trend, mostly because of the frequently high density of buildings in the oldest part of a town. The intricate nature of elements creating the structure of a town’s historic centre often calls for certain steps to be taken, which will ensure better exposure of an old town complex against the backdrop of the town’s other areas. Numerous problems need to be solved, not only spatial but also economic and social ones. A town is a living organism, inhabited by people. The key to tackling these issues successfully lies in the creation of such revitalisation programmes that will improve the quality of space and help achieve the sustainable development of inner-town areas in historic towns. The historic centres in the medieval towns of Warmia, a region rich in history and situated in north-eastern Poland, can serve as an example and has been investigated in the following study. All the towns in Warmia located in the Middle Ages, except the capital of the region Olsztyn, can be classified as small urban developments. This group of eleven towns is dominated by the ones whose territorial coverage has not changed considerably since the location and the population ranges from a few thousand to less than twenty thousand. To this day, the historic quarters of these towns have remained the central ones in each town, and their urban structures to a various extent reveal the features characteristic for the period when they were created. The differences are due to the war damage the towns suffered at the end of World War Two and because of the different ways in which they were reconstructed afterwards. In consequence, some elements of the original town master plans have been lost. Revitalisation is an approach whose aim is to improve the quality of space and the ability of inner town areas to function. Revitalisation goes beyond the purely spatial factors, and involves broadly understood economic and social considerations. The conclusions drawn from this research pertain to benefits of using the revitalisation method in planning a sustainable development of urban structures. The development and implementation of revitalisation programmes is a very complex process that takes many years and requires an integrated and interdisciplinary team effort. This method allows us to preserve the identity of historic town areas while enabling them to play functions in the contemporary life of a town.