Paulina Tota

The beginning of the 20th century brought discourse on the issue of a new “culture of recreation” and the phenomenon of a relatively new invention – the playground. Play – caring for the body and the spirit – interacted in the work of all the great modernists, and the pope of modernism himself, Le Corbusier. Non-existent now, brutalist playgrounds have become a subject for exhibitions: the play of the new creators-artists, and their game with their antecedents and the contemporary audience.

Demographic changes that can be notice in nowadays society are unprecedented: the population of our world has never before been increased so rapidly. What is more, an average life expectancy has never been so high. It is estimated that the group of seniors (persons over sixty years old) is about 500 million worldwide. Academics and demographers admit, that by 2050 the overall proportion of elderly is going to double, approaching over a one-fifth of the entire population. Definitions of the smart city are numerous. Some of them focus mainly on technology aspects, while the others emphasize more human and social issues. Contemporary cities have frequently been using newest technologies and solutions and an indicator of habitants’ quality of life (persons with disabilities as well) is a measure of this using. Hence, with great certainty it can be assumed that a smart city is equally an accessible for all and friendly city. The aim of this paper is to analyse some of solutions and urban policies which are applying of modern smart cities. Characterised solutions directly affect the quality of life of the elderly and people with disabilities and accessibility of urban spaces.

Relationship between man and environments can always refer to the general question of ones being in the world. Spatial and temporal reality forms a frame for every human activity and the orientation therein is the basis for the determination of human’s place – not only in the physical environment, but also in the whole spectrum carried by its meaning. Nowadays, the city has become an essential habitat for man and his nearest space – hence it seems important to take the issue of urban composition as a determinant orientation in urban areas. The article discusses the issue of urban composition as one of the determinants of urban spatial orientation. Author aims to analyze problem of perception and cognition, and the accompanying issue of imageability of environment and creation of its cognitive maps, referring to the image of the city theory of Kevin Lynch.