All rights reservedDurate, RuiGubic, IlijaJankovic, NatashaMoritz, SuzanneTusinski, OliviaWolff, Manuel2024-08-162024-08-162010978-83-7493-570-8https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/1842Book of proceedings: Urban change : The prospect of transformationThis group took an original narrative approach to under¬stand Wrocław and its regional con¬text as a basis for their proposals of desirable change. The narrative – of which an extract is given below – was interspersed with the description of Wrocław and its re¬gion, included in the introduction to the third student task of understanding Wrocław as a whole and addressing overall city structure. Wrocław has a clear typology of urban patterns, each with its advantages and gaps which influence economic, social and cultural opportunities. The city centre provides spaces for diverse intermingled economic and social activities. A second typology consists of modernist tower block housing estates with vast open spaces between them where social interaction is taking place despite the surroundings. The third major typology consists of linear and mono-functional business developments, characterised by large scale building blocks constructed along main roads, isolated from existing surroundings with minimal opportunities for common space and social contact. Linear and large scale development patterns are currently the most common form of development in Wrocław. This new trend can be interpreted as a new form of ‘main street’ writ large, where the car replaces the pedestrian, and the ‘shopping shed’ replaces small scale shop fronts. This fabric has gaps of social interaction and cooperation. The further from the city centre, the more ‘gaps’ become apparent, such as time taken to reach new destinations, larger building blocks preventing penetration, longer gaps between developments, fragmented disconnected land use, such as industrial parks and shopping centres located next to vacant agricultural land, villages from another era, gated business premises and enclosed technology parks.EnglishopenAccessconferenceObject