Revitalization of Small Towns and The Adaptive Reuse of its Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Cultural heritage presently holds an enormous potential for the development of not only large cities, but above all, small towns and townlets. The value of cultural heritage is used as a development factor, which, owing to conservation activities, is to serve both the city and the society. Revitalisation and adaptation, along with protection and conservation of heritage objects, have recently become the most popular conservation activities throughout Europe and Poland. Revitalisation works are performed on a large scale with a view to improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of the revitalized area, raising both the city’s standards and its aesthetic appearance, and consequently encouraging people to live in it as well as attracting tourists. In recent years, numerous revitalisation projects have been carried out in Poland. The analysis focuses on the issue of real possibilities of determining the scope and scale of such projects. In big urban centres, there is an enormous substantive potential and financial resources for conducting the indispensable analyses for revitalisation programs. However, small towns lack both the substantive support and the necessary resources to prepare appropriate analyses for revitalisation works. Therefore, in small towns, the most urgent and essential revitalisation works are carried out, related to infrastructure, such as bicycle paths, and public spaces, like the market square, a local museum, the greenery as well as sport and recreation areas. At the next stage, more complex revitalisation projects, such as works within a historical complex, including ruins, requiring more detailed analyses, reflections and design solutions, are developed and introduced. In order to solve these problems and develop specific projects, specialized teams and designers should be consulted. Unfortunately, the regulations of public procurement, where the lowest price is a priority, are not a helpful instrument for an appropriate determining of the concept and the scope of the future revitalisation solutions. An alternative solution is to develop revitalisation concepts as part of student projects, where the city councils can be presented with a variety of ideas that can be used in the future revitalisation project after the analysis. The subject matter of the article will be presented using the example of Polish towns whose local authorities are trying to restore their former splendour through revitalisation activities. For this purpose, the preserved cultural heritage is used, along with the ruins of old historical buildings.