Nowa Huta, Krakow, Poland. Old Urbanism, New Urbanism?

Abstract

[EN] This paper considers the first stage of Nova Huta New Town built near Krakow in the 1950s. In contrast to UK and US new settlements of the post war period it is a high density apartment block development which was ignored in the literature for more than half a century because its design, based on a system of streets, is in contrast with contemporary forms of development, either low density garden city or higher density free standing apartment blocks. A discussion of its neglect and the recent rediscovery of its qualities, both in Poland and by exponents of the US New Urbanism (part of the Urban Morphology spectrum somewhat neglected by ISUF) leads to a systematic investigation of the development, its influences and how this project conceived in a radically different political and economic context, matches or departs from the tenets of the Charter for the New Urbanism. The extent to which the context has determined the differences leads to a conclusion discussing the enduring qualities and contemporary relevance of inherited urban forms.