Katowice City of Gardens
Katowice aims to interpret afresh the concept of the Garden City, embracing the concept of sustainable development – fundamental to European Union strategy – in place of the utopian formula of a ‘return to nature’. The vision of the English scientist, Ebenezer Howard, is not only a proposal for a specific kind of spatial development but, above all, a source of inspiration for social transformation.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Katowice witnessed the emergence of the working-class Giszowiec district – a development that itself drew directly on the Garden City idea. The city was in the process of undergoing rapid social change, spurred by a transition to a modern metropolis and an industrial society.
Avant-garde modernist tower blocks of the 1930s found themselves standing next to the recreational areas known as Jordan gardens. Surviving to date, these garden complexes featuring pavilion buildings and sports grounds were the result of a carefully thought out synthesis of architecture and garden design. These were built with an educational focus and aimed at promoting a new lifestyle based on hygiene, health and physical training. Moreover, right in the city centre, only a few minutes from residential areas, playgrounds with paddling pools and sandy beaches were sited.
The modern concept of Katowice as a City of Gardens combines local traditions with a need to think boldly about the future. Culture is to be understood quite literally, as a space where ‘cultivation’ takes place: where the process of creating reality unfolds, together with a search for new models of how to live actively in ways that reflect a sense of social responsibility and a feeling of balance between nature and civilisation.
This is also a response to one of the most important issues facing Katowice today: namely, how to confront urban decay and the lack of user-friendly public spaces. Gardens will be designed as attractive elements of the fabric of the urban environment, as meeting places, spaces for cultivating human relations.
A modern City of Gardens is certainly not a utopian idea. It draws on its own vigour and energy for action. In reality, though, for the residents of Katowice it will constitute a difficult but necessary challenge.
Read more www.2016katowice.eu
