Paweł Tor

Spatial continuity and overall clarity of urban design, or rather a manifest lack of them, has become a significant problem of modern urban planning in Poland. This problem affects both public spaces, semi-private urban interiors, and private spaces. There is hardly any spatial continuity both with regard to the smaller components and, more importantly, in terms of the attendant interrelations between them. This phenomenon has been particularly apparent for the last 25 years, especially in the residential areas, where the individually pursued development projects result in the emergence of the totally unrelated to each other, nor indeed to any locally prevalent spatial layout, security fenced-off residential enclaves, or “autonomous cities-within-cities”, as it were. The newly developed residential areas, originating from the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, generally seem to suffer from the lack of clear urban planning, also manifest in overall scarcity of pre-designed sequences of open spaces. In order to design high-quality open spaces within a city, it is vital to establish a set of criteria that would ensure their adequate public reception and appreciation, thereby enhancing overall functional comfort for the city dwellers. In the present paper the Author tries to offer some insights into the key constituent components of urban planning deemed to affect an individual sense of spatial continuity in the urbanized areas, as well as provides an explication of their prudent application by discussing in some detail the example of one of the spatially most crucial compositional axis within the city of Kraków.

We can currently observe a significant increase in the importance of technology in almost every aspect of life. This development is necessary and brings with it many beneficial changes, including those concerning the functioning of the modern city, which, according to contemporary trends, is to become a “SMART CITY”.

The dictionary definition of the word “smart”1 points to its meaning as “intelligent, clever”, which means that a “smart city” is not only intelligent thanks to information technology-related solutions which support its day-to-day functioning, but also smart thanks to the wisdom of employing previous experiences and answering the non-technological needs of city residents.

Treating contemporary technologies as a sort of “plug-in” for the existing or designed urban tissue, we must remember that newly designed areas should also be “smart” through their structure , as well as a programme that creates a high-quality foundation for the future city.