Methodology for Assessing the Transport Accessibility of Capital Objects in a Megacity Based on Geoinformation Data

Purpose: to present the author's methodology and the test results for calculating integral indicators of transport accessibility on the basis of weighted normalized private indicators for three housing estates in Moscow.Methods: the study is based on the application of methods for collecting factual material, its processing, systematic, comparative historical and structural-functional analysis, which were supplemented by multivariate analysis of secondary information using content analysis of existing methods for calculating indicators of transport accessibility of capital objects. The results and conclusions of the research are based on the use of the author's methodology for calculating integral indicators of transport accessibility based on weighted normalized private indicators for three housing estates in Moscow. The analysis of a possible set of criteria for assessing transport accessibility of housing estates in Moscow metropolis was carried out on the basis of the use of a geographic information system database GIS NextGIS QGIS.Results: a review of methodological approaches to the calculation of objective quantitative indicators characterizing the transport accessibility of capital objects is carried out; the author's methodology for calculating the integral indicators of the transport accessibility of residential complexes in Moscow is presented and tested on the basis of weighted normalized private criteria / indicators. The use of the authors’ methodology for calculating integral indicators of transport accessibility based on weighted normalized private criteria / indicators made it possible to calculate the values of indicators of transport accessibility for three housing estates in Moscow, calculate an integrated score for a set of transport accessibility criteria for each housing estate, to give a comparative quantitative assessment of their transport accessibility, to conduct a rating of housing estates in terms of their transport accessibility.Conclusions and Relevance: the presented results of approbation of the author's methodology for calculating the integral indicators of transport accessibility for housing estates in Moscow allow to conduct a comparative and dynamic analysis of housing estates (or larger units) transport accessibility. The results of such an analysis can be applied in order to develop programs for transport infrastructure development of the megacity as a whole, its certain districts and city parts, as well as to assess such programs efciency. The authors see the directions for future research in the defnition and calculation of indicators based on the city dwellers perception of the transport accessibility

Archaizmy językowe w nazwach osiedli i ich mieszkańców (na wybranych przykładach nazw z Mszany Dolnej)

The paper is dedicated to the linguistic peculiarities found in the names of housing estates and their residents in Mszana Dolna, a town located in Zagórze area, in southern Małopolska. Morphological and phonetic features of toponyms and anthroponyms which are discussed result from historical, linguistic and dialectal conditions. Moreover, they reflect certain facts connected with culture and geography of the region.

Conserving inequality: How private conservation and property developers ‘fix’ spatial injustice in South Africa

In 2016, South Africa launched its National Biodiversity Economy Strategy. This strategy aims to facilitate the development of a ‘wildlife economy’ as a solution to unemployment, loss of biodiversity and rural development. Central to the strategy is the role of private conservation actors, who keenly posit their commercial model as the best way to achieve these objectives. This stands in sharp contrast to recent critiques that suggest that private conservation reinforces structural inequality by denying access to land and perpetuating unjust labour conditions. Using ethnographic data from the South African Lowveld region that includes the Kruger National Park, the paper takes these points further by arguing that a rapidly growing alliance between private conservation and property developers actively conserve inequality by maintaining and even extending spatial injustice in the region. Two popular recent manifestations of this alliance in particular, share block systems that distribute ownership of access to real estate in private reserves and wildlife housing estates, have established new conservation-property linkages that entrench capitalist socioecological fixes. Not only do these initiatives lead to further engrained spatial injustice, we conclude that this conservation-property alliance at the centre of the ‘wildlife economy’ also willingly sacrifices environmental sustainability on the altar of white conservation imaginations and private profit.

Nawiązania do tradycji budownictwa wiejskiego w architekturze Wolnego Miasta Gdańska w dobie narodowego socjalizmu

After the establishment of the Free City of Danzig, the process of the renovation and inventory of arcaded houses (Vorlaubenhäuser) and timber -framed churches in the vicinity of Gdańsk began, along with the increasing scientific interest in them. At the same time, in numerous projects from the 1930s, the interest of architects in traditional rural construction, related to the orders of the Nationalist Socialist Party for certain types of structures, can be observed. In the suburbs of Gdańsk and Sopot, standard, posed as idyllic workers’ housing estates were founded, which were to combine the advantages of living in the countryside and in the city. The network of kindergartens of the National Socialist People’s Welfare (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt) as well as youth hostels used by the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) and the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) was expanded. According to the Blut -und -Boden ideology, a network of camps for the Land Service (Landdienst) for the Hitlerjugend, community houses for members of the NSDAP Party, and exemplary farms were also founded. The repertoire of local materials, traditional architectural details, as well as references in interior design were intended as manifestations of the regional identity, used by the National Socialist authorities to serve the purposes of the Party propaganda, which was creating the myth of an idyllic, strong, homogeneous national community and proving the uninterrupted continuity of German culture in the Free City of Danzig, despite its separation from the German Reich.

Działalność architekta Friedricha Fischera (1879–1944) w Gdańsku i Sopocie

The person of the architect Friedrich Fischer has been somewhat forgotten, even though he played a meaningful role in the beginnings of the existence of the Free City of Gdańsk as its first conservator and the first head of the Ground Construction Office. Before and during WW I Fischer worked privately as an architect, mostly in the Gdańsk and Sopot area, and among chosen projects one located in Wrzeszcz, in Uphagena Street, as well as the architect’s own house at 30 Stefana Żeromskiego Street in Sopot can be named. Fischer was also a scholar who obtained a doctorate in 1910 and prepared a postdoctoral thesis, as well as a lecturer at the Department of Architecture at the Technical University (until April 1925). In 1918, he became involved in building administration, carrying out projects for the Housing Estate Office, of which he was the head. He created designs of the street now known as Hallera Street in Wrzeszcz and plans of green areas on former fortification grounds. He also initiated works on the plan of Great Gdańsk, eventually known as the ‘Althoff plan’. In 1923–1925, he was the head of the Ground Construction Office. From this period his designs of the first version of the school in Pestalozziego Street in Wrzeszcz and the unrealised fair building in Gdańsk are known. He designed the completed housing estates in today’s Zbyszka z Bogdańca and Dubois Streets in Gdańsk - -Wrzeszcz as well as several churches for the Catholic community of the Free City of Gdańsk: St Anthony’s Church in Gdańsk -Brzeźno, the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Głęboka Street in Gdańsk - Knipawa, and the Church of Christ the King in the small town of Piekło, in the former Wielkie Żuławy District. Fischer was active as Conservator of Architectural Monuments for four years. During this period the function of Conservator of Historical Monuments was merged with the function of the head of the Ground Construction Office. During his service as conservator the preservation of the historical form of the city became a priority The model of proceedings in the Free City area established by Fischer constituted an important point of reference in the following years. He was also involved in the preparation of the Preservation of Historical Monuments Act proclaimed in 1923. In March 1925, Fischer moved to Hannover, where he became associate professor specialising in medieval architecture. He remained in that city and at its university until his death.

The Problem of Densification of Large-Panel Housing Estates upon the Example of Cracow

The paper focuses on the phenomenon of intense, uncontrolled densification of large-panel housing estates in Poland. Despite the fact that such housing estates as a legacy of the Modernist concept of segregation of functions are often burdened with problems, they still have considerable potential, which results predominantly from their urban advantages, such as functional and spatial logic, large amounts of open public space, and abundance of greenery. Unfortunately, this potential is being destroyed by introducing new buildings, ignoring the existing urban layout of the housing estate along with its original compositional assumptions. This type of densification results from—without limitations—the pressure exerted by developers in the free-market economy, and it often leads to problems such as the devastation of urban layouts of these housing estates, breaking the continuity of public spaces, appropriation of green areas, strengthening of monofunctionality, etc. This problem is becoming noticeable in the scientific debate, although it is still difficult to obtain reliable data illustrating the densifications of such housing estates. The goal of this paper is to present the scales and character of such densifications of the large-panel housing estates, which pose a threat of devastation of their urban layouts often considered as urban heritage. The paper proposes a method of a quantitative analysis of the housing estates with reference to the increase in the built-up area and a qualitative analysis of the character of development with reference to its distribution. This method comprises a sequence of subsequent steps with relevant criteria. In the results, it demonstrates the scale of the problem, which in many cases is already big and still growing. The resultant threat of devastation of the urban layout and its consequences are presented upon selected examples of housing estates in Cracow, Poland. This paper is a voice in a discussion devoted to the current status, but most of all to the future of large-panel housing estates, particularly in terms of their protection as valuable achievements of urban planning of the second half of the 20th century, and to stopping unfavorable tendencies of urban destruction.

Urban Shrinkage and Socio-Economic Segregation in Medium-Sized Cities: The Case of Schwerin (Germany)

Although past studies have found that processes of urban shrinkage may act as a catalyst for socio-economic segregation, these relationships remain underexplored outside the context of large cities and capitals. Moreover, cities at lower-tiers of the urban hierarchy in post-socialist Europe have been doubly excluded from the critical discourse on the socio-spatial effects of shrinkage. Hence, this article examines how shrinkage affects socio-economic segregation in the medium-sized post-socialist city of Schwerin, employing segregation indices to assess levels of spatial unevenness and location quotients to map intra-urban patterns of vulnerable population groups over time. Results indicate processes of shrinkage may exacerbate socio-economic segregation in medium-sized cities and that the spatial heterogeneity of shrinkage intersects with uneven distributions of affluence and poverty. However, suggesting that legacies of state socialism shape contemporary socio-spatial change, segregation in Schwerin is strongly conditioned by its socialist-era housing estates, which are generally characterised by the highest rates of population decline, vacancy, and vulnerable groups.