The revitalisation of old factories area on the chosen example from Lodz

Abstract

Lodz (Łódź) is one of the major urban centres in Poland - and a city of unique historical and cultural heritage. The city is continuously changing and developing, respecting its identity and tradition or declaring that. The article aims to present field and case studies of three examples of the revitalisation of neglected areas in Lodz. These post-industrial spaces lost their functions in the last decade of the XXth century. These three projects in different parts of the city with other characteristics and ownership situations represent three different approaches to revitalising historical objects and adjusting them to new functions. Given cases are compelling examples of the various methods used to post-industrial heritage protection and conservation activities and the outcome of those entirely different strategies. As it seems the private entrepreneur has reached the best result in raising activities at the neglected old factory plot but at the same time while placing the responsibility of the space on its new users. Simultaneously, the public financed project oversight by towns authorities introduce the most changes to the historical tissue and seems not to reach its goals as far as a revitalisation of the area is concerned. In this light, the last project joining both private and public funds and introducing a new design solution with extreme care for historical tissue seems to reach the goals of both at a satisfactory level. The examples show how different strategies for cities to redeveloped their image and function work in Mid-European post-communism countries realities and how other types of public life participants embrace this heritage.