Nowy Sącz: story of a changing city – a space syntax historical analysis of a network of public spaces
Authors:
- Justyna Olesiak
Abstract
Situated in southern Poland, Nowy Sącz has 80,000 residents. It was founded in the Middle Ages, but did not develop very dynamically until the late 19th century. A railway line from Tarnów to Budapest, completed in 1876, was an important driver of its growth. Stephen Báthory Avenue is an impressive landmark in the city. It is a monumental artery (for a town of this size), connecting the historical center with the railway station. The Nowy Sącz rail junction's growth paved the way for a modern railway neighborhood, resembling in many ways a garden city. It was developed until the First World War in 1914. Fundamental guidelines for urban planning and architecture were set in an 1870 resolution of the City Council. It divided the urban space into three zones: the central zone, which generally overlaps the Medieval town; the ring of historical suburbs; and the outer zone, which included rural areas and an informal rural layout and modern streets. The next stage of its growth involved incorporating adjacent municipalities after the Second World War and constructing large, multi-family developments. A space syntax analysis of historical maps will help understand the urban space's growth and development structure. Characteristics of urban streets yielded by the analyses may be employed to propose and test hypotheses for past urban movement, convergence points, and socioeconomic activity patterns. It can, in turn, help interpret other historical source materials to build a comprehensive picture of urban spatial culture. Axial maps of street networks will be developed using current and historical city plans (1770, 1845, 1917, 1930, 1955, 1990, and 2020). Space syntax methodology will be employed to measure Integration (HH), Connectivity, and Choice for each stage of the city's spatial development. The results indicating areas of the highest integration value will be verified against historical studies. A strong correlation will be demonstrated between the foci of urban life of super-local reach and their places in a growing city's structural network. The innovative space syntax toolbox – with its interdisciplinary approach to research on the urban development history of Nowy Sącz during the 19th and 20th centuries – emphasizes several essential issues: directions of the city's development, city typology, patterns of movement, and foci of urban life. Clear space syntax visualizations make it easier to present and explain the mechanisms and processes taking place in the three spatial dimensions, as well as a fourth: time.
- Record ID
- CUT2c23e9b2e4bb490b97a23cc41068597d
- Publication categories
- ; ;
- Author
- Pages
- [19-21]
- Other elements of collation
- Bibliografia (na s.) - [20-21]
- Book
- Nes Akkelies van, Akkelies van Nes Tan Wendy Wendy Tan (eds.): The 1rst international online space syntax PhD conference, Bergen, Norway, 21. June 2021 : book of abstracts, 2021, [Bergen], Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, ISBN 978-82-93677-54-3
- Keywords in English
- heritage urbanism, space syntax, data-informed planning, urban transformations, middle-sized city, urban growth, Nowy Sącz
- URL
- https://www.hvl.no/en/research/conference/1st-international-space-syntax-phd-conference/ Opening in a new tab
- Language
- eng (en) English
- License
- Score (nominal)
- 0
- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://cris.pk.edu.pl/info/article/CUT2c23e9b2e4bb490b97a23cc41068597d/
- URN
urn:pkr-prod:CUT2c23e9b2e4bb490b97a23cc41068597d
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