perspectives for katowice

1. INTRODUCTIONIn recent years the city of Katowice has been under-going intensive transformation of its downtown areas.There are many projects in progress to improve the

functionality, aesthetics and image of the city. One ofthe elements in the revitalization of the city centre isa concept of transforming and intensifying the devel-opment of the academic quarter.

CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT AND DOWNTOWN REGENERATION– PERSPECTIVES FOR KATOWICE

Filip PIAŚCIK a, Michał STANGEL b

a Eng. Arch.; Student at the Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology, ul. Akademicka 7,44-100 Gliwice, PolandE-mail address: [email protected]

b DSc PhD Eng. Arch.; Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology, ul. Akademicka 7,44-100 Gliwice, PolandE-mail address: [email protected]

Received: 17.12.2015; Revised: 12.01.2016; Accepted: 10.02.2016

A b s t r a c tThe scope of the paper is to present the issues concerning the revitalization of an area situated in the centre of Katowice,where an academic quarter of the University of Silesia is emerging. Although this problem has been subject of numerousresearch works, workshops and competitions, the city of Katowice, despite many investments, has not managed to fullyimplement the revitalization of this area. Research activities indicated the deficiency in the integration of student functions.The surface of the area is about 10 hectares, located at the quarter comprising Warszawska, Bankowa and Dudy-GraczaStreets and the Rawa river boulevards. In May 2014 the Municipality of Katowice and University of Silesia announced theworkshops on concepts of integrating an urban student centre, with the participation of the team from the Faculty ofArchitecture, Silesian University of Technology. The workshops were focused on analysing the situation of the program anddesign elaboration for the area in question. The proposed solutions were targeted at creating a student centre integratedwith other public sites of Katowice, improving the attractiveness of the Rawa riverside, and providing a competitive advan-tage for the city of Katowice over other university cities in Poland.

S t r e s z c z e n i eArtykuł przedstawia problem rewitalizacji obszaru w śródmieściu Katowic, gdzie w przyszłości ma powstać dzielnica aka-demicka Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Problematyka była tematem wielu prac, warsztatów oraz konkursów, ale do dzisiaj mias-to – pomimo wielu inwestycji, nie zrealizowało tego projektu. Badania, które były przeprowadzane na tym obszarze, wykaza-ły brak integracji funkcji studenckich. Omawiany obszar ma powierzchnię ok. 10 ha i znajduje się w kwartale między ulica-mi Warszawską, Bankową i Dudy-Gracza oraz bulwarami Rawy. W maju 2014 Urząd Miasta Katowice i Uniwersytet Śląskiogłosiły warsztaty na opracowanie koncepcji zintegrowanego centrum miejskiego, w których wziął także udział zespółWydziału Architektury Politechniki Śląskiej. Celem warsztatów było przeanalizowanie umiejscowienia programu i stworze-nie opracowania studialno-projektowego. Zaproponowane rozwiązania miały na celu wykreowanie centrum studenckiegopowiązanego z przestrzeniami publicznymi Katowic, poprawienie atrakcyjności strefy nadrzecznej Rawy i danie szansyKatowicom na wygranie rywalizacji miast akademickich.

K e y w o r d s : Urban regeneration; Urban design; Campus design; Katowice; Integrated student centre.

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A R C H I T E C T U R E C I V I L E N G I N E E R I N G E N V I R O N M E N TThe Si les ian Univers i ty of Technology No. 1/2016

F . P i a ś c i k , M . S t a n g e l

Katowice received the town status in 1865. The Inter-War period witnessed a rapid development of thecity, which became the economic heartland ofPoland. In the next years, Katowice- the capital ofSilesia – achieved a rank of an academic city. Furtheradvancement of industry and urban developmentresulted, unfortunately, in considerable neglect of thetechnical and social infrastructure.Degraded sites were included in the revitalizationprogram [7]. They are to be subjected to spatial, eco-nomic, and social transformations, and thus, con-tributing to the improvement of the life quality of theinhabitants, restoration of the spatial order, econom-ic boom and regeneration of social bonds, as well asnew housing developments [1]. Among other areas,the program is focused on degraded quarters, post-industrial and post-military sites. Also, obstructiveand overloaded traffic structure reduces the func-tionality of the city centre.Some transformation activities were initiated in 2006,entailing the reconstruction of General Jerzy Ziętektraffic circle and erection of the Academy of FineArts gallery. In the next stage, in the vicinity of“Spodek” (in Polish “Flying Saucepan”) entertain-ment and sports hall, the Zone of Culture was creat-ed, comprising three investments: InternationalCongress Centre, new seat of the NationalSymphonic Orchestra of the Polish Radio, and newMuseum of Silesia. Presently, the space between theabove mentioned traffic circle and the city square isundergoing transformations.The facilities of the University of Silesia are currentlylocated in the 19th century workers’ estate, in the vicin-ity of Górnicza Street. The insufficiency of funds andcomplicated ownership structure have resulted indegradation of buildings and marginalization of thispart of the city. The tasks undertaken by theMunicipality are aimed at creating an attractive cityquarter offering the functions of culture, science, com-merce and services. The site that complements theurban tissue is the Science Zone, emerging betweenWarszawska, Bankowa and Dudy-Gracza Streets andthe Rawa river boulevards, occupying about 10hectares. The spaces around the faculties are poten-tially attractive for people moving around theUniversity area. Since 2010 the city authorities havebeen planning to place the academic quarter in thisarea, and, accordingly the sites have been successfullyprepared for the investment, by buying out the lots,tenement houses and moving out the occupants [11,17]. In 2012, within the framework of the revitalizationprogram for the city centre, the Scientific Information

Centre and Academic Library were created, in coop-eration of the University of Silesia, Academy ofEconomics and city authorities. The great advantageof this facility is its good accessibility, not only for stu-dents, but also for all inhabitants, which stimulates thestudent campus site. Moreover, directly within theurban tissue of the housing settlements, a new seat ofthe Faculty of Radio and Television, University ofSilesia, is being built.Likewise, in 2014, within the framework of the samerevitalization program, Katowice Municipality andUniversity of Silesia organized study and designworkshops on “Integrated Student Centre at theUniversity of Silesia”. The objective was to analyzethe possibilities of locating the designed functionalprogram for the indicated sites and to plan relevantadministrative and investment activities, in the formof a design-elaboration which should be an exhaus-tive analysis of the functions, development featuresand spatial management of university area, enablinga harmonious implementation of the functional pro-gram planned by the University of Silesia and takinginto consideration the surrounding sites [12].In accordance with the guidelines set forth by theworkshops organizers, the campus should also housethe faculty of philology, centre for biotechnology andbio-diversity, sports hall, and student dormitories.Furthermore, each facility should have the requiredcubic capacity, and the designed buildings should referto the typology of place and be easily identifiable. Theauthors of this paper were invited to participate in theworkshops: Michał Stangel, Adrian Zięba, FilipPiaścik. The results of their work are described below.

2. THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONSDowntown areas are important elements of thestrategic structure of at least regional importance.Accordingly, the layout of the city structure shouldprovide an explicit vision of its centre. It may beassumed that the solutions contained in urban plansshould constitute a strategic context for revitalizationprograms [18], focused on the renewal of the siteswhich, due to economic and social activities, have losttheir original functions. In the context of city centres,revitalization projects usually involve the activationand improvement of the attractiveness of sites con-sidered in the program [9]. In the course of planningrevitalization activities the following issues should beassumed: improvement of the technical condition ofbuildings, adjustment for public functions and con-struction of new facilities and developments. This

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C A M P U S D E V E L O P M E N T A N D D O W N T O W N R E G E N E R A T I O N – P E R S P E C T I V E S F O R K A T O W I C E

should strengthen the economic base and, at thesame time, stop the economic and social degradationof central urban areas. The identity of places shouldbe preserved, as well as the heritage values, by sup-porting buildings and settlements of historical impor-tance. As far as possible, new investments shouldimprove ecological standards [3]. The transformationof brownfields should be consistent with the princi-ples of Sustainable Development. The concept of asustainable city refers to rational shaping of urbanstructures, and, first and foremost, rational, econom-ical and effective management of the city resources.Other important issues are: accessibility to publictransport, nature conservation and supplementationof the existing settlements [14].Modern universities are extremely important to thedevelopment of cities. Cooperation between universi-ties and industry revives the economy based on knowl-edge [5]. Thus, in the context of the revitalization andactivation of the city, the emergence of universities isessential. University buildings and public spaces ofcampuses support contacts between the university,and industry and local authorities, generating furtherprogress in the knowledge society [15]. Such is thecase of AGH (the Polish acronym for Academy ofMining and Metallurgy) campus in Cracow, SilesianUniversity of Technology in Gliwice, or University ofWarsaw. Situated downtown, they fulfil the assump-tions of an integrated student centre.“Studies made in the course of the design processattempt to generate, obtain knowledge and newinsights into design transformations and conversions,or design interventions into the existing state ofspace. In general, such studies have an explorativenature. The first step is to generate new options for adesign by regarding the design as a process, where theconnections between the options of changes are sub-ject of analyses or lead to adjustments, or, to entirelydifferent solutions. Thus, the concepts may be devel-oped as a completely new, or better understanding ofthe impact of various design decisions” [8].

3. METHODOLOGY OF THE DESIGNELABORATIONThe method of work entailed activities undertaken toidentify the conditions and potential of the sites, i.e.research by design [8]. Due to the revitalization natureof the elaboration, the method of work was equivalentto specific successive stages, which, according toKrzysztof Gasidło [3] are: diagnosis of the existing con-dition, delimitation of the area, urban evaluation, des-

ignation of the objectives, indication of the means andmethods of revaluation, revaluation project.

Diagnosis of the current conditionsIn the years of the development of the University ofSilesia the issue of functional connections betweenfaculty buildings, the library and administrationheadquarters was completely overlooked. Lowattractiveness of the University campus results,among other factors, from poor accessibility to stu-dent dormitories (about 10 km from the campus),absence of student canteen, absence of space fororganizing student events, absence of clubs, insuffi-cient number of parking places, deficiency of green-ery. In addition, the Rawa riverbed constitutes a bar-rier, separating the public spaces of the campus andposing difficulties in the functionality of this area. Allof these problems make the academic sites lifeless.

Delimitation of the areaThe area of the urban student quarter in Katowice isdesignated by the strategic documentation of themunicipality and strategies of the development of theUniversity of Silesia. According to many opinions, inview of a direct vicinity to the zone of culture, the uni-versity campus should be connected within the frame-work of this zone. The site of the integrated studentcentre constitutes a fragment of this zone, which, forthe purposes of the elaboration, was demarcated dueto the availability of lots that could be developed in thenearest future. The area in question is, in particular,determined by the streets layout: Warszawska from thesouth, the Rawa river boulevards in the north,Bankowa in the west, and Dudy-Gracza in the east.The boundaries designated by the streets are rigid andimpassable; whereas, the boundary set by the Rawariver boulevards is flexible and may be extended to thespace in front of the academic library buildings,Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Law andAdministration. Internally, the sites are divided by thequarters of housing settlements.

Urban valuationThe campus of the University of Silesia is located inthe downtown of Katowice. In its direct neighbour-hood there are attractive public spaces and architec-tural objects and, therefore, revitalization of this areais important for it to become a cohesive part of thecity. The quality of public spaces has been improved inrecent years due to new investments into architecture.New attractive buildings have been constructed:

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Figure 5.Location of the Student Centre in the context of the structure of Katowice and its connections with the surroundings

Figure 1, 2, 3, 4.Photographs taken in the discussed area


Museum of Silesia, International Congress Centre,Traffic Circle of Arts. Likewise, a new library of theUniversity of Silesia has been built at the campus sites.One of the advantages of its location is easy access topublic transport. The walking distance to the railwaystation is about 10 minutes, whereas the tramway sys-tem is available in Warszawska Street, in close vicinityof the area subjected to the elaboration. There is alsoa bus stop in Korfantego Street, from which bussesserving the Silesian Agglomeration are available. DTŚ(Polish acronym for: Perimeter Motorway) runningsouth of the campus provides connections to theneighbouring cities. The layout of the streets grid andhouses constitutes the viewing axis for people presentat the campus, from where the shaft of Katowice CoalMine is also visible, and space still available for theconstruction of a dominant which could be seen fromKorfantego and Damrota Streets, as well as from thesquare in front of the railway station.

Means and methods of revitalizationIn the context of revitalization, the improvement ofthe attractiveness of the campus area is essential,and, in consequence, architectural design of sitesjoined to a sequence of attractive public spaces alongthe Rawa river boulevards, accessible from the down-town of the city. Contemporary, multi-functional uni-versity complexes can not only serve the academicsand intensify student life. Their facilities can servelocal community and be used for other means of edu-cation, such as youth activities, science popularisa-tion or university of the third age [6]. The creation ofan academic quarter must involve the coordination offunctions, spaces, economy and society. Importantaspects that should be considered in the creation of astudent centre are: stimulation of public space con-necting the campus with the downtown, possibility ofperforming diverse activities in this space and athousing settlements, and, last but not least, academic

buildings surrounding this space.The concept assumes the formation of modern publicurban spaces, compact housing settlements inter-twined with service facilities and academic buildings.Furthermore, other important aspects to be consid-ered are: joining of the spaces along both banks of theRawa river, forming places of activities for studentsand housing occupants, connecting the campus toexisting public spaces, and creating active frontages.

4. RESULTS – URBAN CONCEPT OFREVITALIZATIONHigh quality spatial management of the IntegratedStudent Centre and its connection to the neighbour-ing public spaces of the downtown provide opportu-nities for enhancing the attractiveness of the Rawariverside zone and turning it into a high-rank urbanspace, which can have a direct impact on the image ofthe city of Katowice and University of Silesia, encour-aging, at the same time, the inhabitants to visit theCampus. “Academic Square” will not only function asa foreground to academic buildings, but also as aplace for meetings, evoking a number of positiveassociations and sensations, enriching the image ofKatowice as an academic city. This area will functionas activity space for students and occupants, in linewith the concept of “an open university”. The spaceof the academic quarter is, among other elements,shaped by the viewing axes from the City Square,Damrota Street and new seat of Museum of Silesia.Due to such course of action, legible sequences ofpedestrian passages will be formed. To secure theattractiveness of the newly managed space, it isimportant to follow a precise order of action. At first,the space offering possibilities of various activities forthe public should be formed, next, it should beenclosed and supplemented with active frontages,and, finally new buildings designed [4].

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Figure 6.Order of space formation

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Multi-valiant management of the square and possi-bilities of performing diverse functions: recreation,artistic events venue, plenary events, fountain withwater nozzles, seasonal ice-skating rink, concerts,teaching in the open air, exhibitions, workshops, etc.The pavement must be formed in a manner enablingthe assembly and access to a movable scene[14].Active functioning of the student square depends onclosing the frontages. It is crucial that service facili-ties, student organizations, catering outlets, open outtowards the square, and that the frontages are high-lighted by small architecture and greenery. Whereas,the elements of the existing infrastructure that dimin-ishes the attractiveness of the revitalized quartershould be obscured by pergolas and plants.Academic settlements should be placed around thenewly created public space, next to the Rawa river,whereas, transport services inside the quarter shouldbe removed. The building of the Faculty of Philologyis situated at the frontage running along the Rawariver boulevard, with an atrium connected to thesquare. Together with a tower block, housing the aca-demic dormitory, it will close the viewing axis fromthe city square. There are connections to the catwalkleading to the sports hall and a multi-level parkinglot. The building of the Centre for Biotechnology and

Biodiversity is located at the southern frontage of thesquare and connected to it by means of arcades andan atrium. The student dormitory (also for foreignstudents) is the tallest building, also functioning as alandmark of the quarter. It is easily accessible due toits visual availability at the viewing axes. Theentrance is situated at the Faculty of Philology andconnected to the sports hall.The existing pedestrian routes should be preserved,but, nevertheless, their connections to public bus stopsimproved. To facilitate car traffic in the area, it is nec-essary to build two multilevel parking lots, locatedamong the existing buildings, whereas, the presentparking lot along the Rawa river should be demolishedto improve the functionality of its boulevards [15].


Figure 8.Visualization from a bird’s eye view

Figure 7.Spatial management of the concept area


The advantages of compacting and creating the acad-emic quarter are the following:• Traffic and spatial connections with existing acade-

mic and culture sites in the city (NationalSymphonic Orchestra of the Polish Radio,“Spodek” entertainment and sports hall,International Congress Centre, Museum of Silesia,downtown parts of the city, Centre for Scientificinformation and Academic Library, campuses ofthe University of Silesia and Academy ofEconomics)

• Improved communication between students andthe University

• Noticeable presence of students in the city, thanksto the vicinity of dormitories to cultural institutionsand the campus)

• Integration of the existing academic sites belongingto different universities into one functional andspatial complex

• Increase in the number of students• Intensification of student life and cultural life of

students and inhabitants• Enhanced attractiveness and competitive advan-

tage of Silesian universities• Improvement of the integration of the academic

environment.

4. RECAPITULATIONThe workshops finished by selecting the conceptelaborated by “Atelier PS” architectural design officeas the best (Marek Skwara, Mirosław Polak, MichałJadczak). According to the Committee’s opinion,their design elaboration was well- suited to be con-tinued at the next stage of the workshops.Nevertheless, the concept described in this paper wasassessed as the second best in consideration of thenumber of points, and in the course of the discussionthe jury detected a number of similar solutions andconsidered them as recommendations for furtherdevelopment [10]. The effect of the second stage wasthe introduction of changes in the local spatial devel-opment plan, which, at the time of writing this paper,is still at the phase of the assessment and resolutionprocedure.It should be noted that, during the second stage ofthe elaboration, a team of British students supervisedby Professor Nawratek undertook the same task,upon the invitation of the University of Silesia [16].The team proposed the construction of student dor-mitories in the area subjected to revitalization, butleaving the dispersed faculties as they are, to provide

the conditions for better integration between stu-dents and local communities. However, this solutiondid not convince the Municipality and the Universityauthorities, so the concept of creating an academicquarter was not abandoned.The revitalization of the downtown areas involvingthe creation of an integrated student centre posesopportunities for the regeneration of degraded sites,integration of student life with the city and its inhab-itants, improvement of the image of Katowice. Thepresence of the academic centre will not only providea competitive advantage for the city, but also possi-bilities of further growth [12]. The student centre andthe campus integrated with the downtown site aresupposed to be the next big urban developmentendeavour, the implementation of which we will beable to observe and assess in the times to come.

5. CONCLUSIONThe elaboration of the concept was possible thanks tothe invitation to the workshops issued by city architectof Katowice – Stanisław Podkański, KatowiceMunicipality and University of Silesia. The Dean ofthe Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University ofTechnology, professor Zbigniew Kamiński, appointedthe following team: Michał Stangel, Adrian Zięba,Filip Piaścik. There were also two other teams partici-pating in the workshops upon the recommendation ofSARP (Polish Association of Architects), anotherteam representing our Faculty, a team from WST(Tertiary Technical College), and PA NOVA StanisławLessaer design office, which did not take part in thecompetition as such, but prepared a local spatial man-agement plan for the area. The winning team was“Atelier PS”– Mirosław Polak and Marek Skwara.

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Figure 9.The authors team in front of the design concept, togetherwith the city architect of Katowice – Stanisław Podkański(left), and the dean of Faculty of Architecture, SilesianUniversity of Technology, prof. Zbigniew Kamiński (right)


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perspectives for katowice