Ensuring our own security has always been one of the main aims of humanity. When the walls of fortresses became a thing of the past along with World War I, it seemed that all manners of fences and walls are going to disappear from our cities forever. Seventy years later, along with Poland’s reclaimed independence, we are going back to the tall fences that are meant to give us protection. The housing developments of the 1990’s and of the first two decades of the XXI century have elevated a fence to a symbol of luxury. Polish cities started to resemble guarded ghettoes, in which tall walls delineate the borders between that which is worse and generally accessible and that which is superior, guarded and enclosed. Access to green areas has been restricted in a lot of places. They have been reserved for the residents of the nearby residential buildings and their residents only. Many recreational pathways have been severed, forcing their users to circle around the walled off enclaves, often using paths leading along streets with heavy traffic. What are the causes of this state of affairs and is it possible to once again bring back the continuity of the structure of the city, accessible to all of its inhabitants?

Zapewnienie sobie bezpieczeństwa od zawsze stanowiło jeden z głównych celów ludzkości. Gdy wraz z pierwszą wojną światową odchodziły w niepamięć mury twierdz, wydawało się, że wszelkiego rodzaju ogrodzenia w miastach znikną na zawsze. 70 lat później, wraz z ponownym odzyskaniem niepodległości przez Polskę, wracamy do wysokich ogrodzeń mających strzec naszego bezpieczeństwa. Nowych osiedlach budowanych w latach 90. XX wieku oraz w dwóch pierwszych dekadach XXI wieku – ogrodzenie stało się synonimem luksusu. Polskie miasta zaczęły przypominać strzeżone getta, gdzie wysokie ogrodzenie wyznacza granice pomiędzy tym co gorsze ogólnodostępne, a tym co lepsze, strzeżone i zamknięte. W wielu miejscach ograniczony został dostęp do terenów zielonych. Zostały one zarezerwowane wyłącznie dla mieszkańców danych zespołów mieszkaniowych. Przerwano wiele ścieżek rekreacyjnych, zmuszając użytkowników do omijania zamkniętych enklaw, często drogami biegnącymi wzdłuż ruchliwych ulic. Jakie są przyczyny takiego stanu i czy możliwe jest ponowne przywrócenie ciągłej struktury miasta dostępnej dla wszystkich mieszkańców.

Recreation – fenced off

Ensuring our own security has always been one of the main aims of humanity. When the walls of fortresses became a thing of the past along with World War I, it seemed that all manners of fences and walls are going to disappear from our cities forever. Seventy years later, along with Poland’s reclaimed independence, we are going back to the tall fences that are meant to give us protection. The housing developments of the 1990’s and of the first two decades of the XXI century have elevated a fence to a symbol of luxury. Polish cities started to resemble guarded ghettoes, in which tall walls delineate the borders between that which is worse and generally accessible and that which is superior, guarded and enclosed. Access to green areas has been restricted in a lot of places. They have been reserved for the residents of the nearby residential buildings and their residents only. Many recreational pathways have been severed, forcing their users to circle around the walled off enclaves, often using paths leading along streets with heavy traffic. What are the causes of this state of affairs and is it possible to once again bring back the continuity of the structure of the city, accessible to all of its inhabitants?