Sprawa Oliwy. Uwagi na marginesie konkursu architektoniczno-urbanistycznego

• Authors: Stankiewicz Jerzy

Title variants

EN

THE QUESTION OF OLIWA

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The problems of shaping and protection of the complexes of spatial, cultural and historical value as exemplified by the case of Oliwa, near Gdańsk, are discussed by the author. Referring to the architectonic and town planning competition for the development o f Stara Oliwa (Old Oliwa) he also draws certain general conclusions pertaining to competitions of this kind. At Oliwa, a settlement connected with the Cistercian Abbey founded there in the 12th century, certain industrial activities developed in the course of time when mills, forges and other manufacturing plants started being set up on the stream flowing that locality. Nearby, on the sea- coast, the fisherman’s village o f Jelitkowo existed since early me diaeval times. Beginning with the 16th century, the patricians of Gdańsk used to built their country residences near Oliwa (on the grounds of the village of Polanka). On the turn of the 19th, a few residential villa settlements, interesting from architectonic point of view, were added to the complex of Oliwa. Almost untouched by the hostilities of the Second World War, it has retained its most important and varied historical and spatial values, harmonized with one another and with the landscape: the seaside te r race in the east and the wodded slopes of the moraine upland and picturesque valleys in the west. The postwar period saw a dynamic development of the agglomeration o f Gdańsk. Work was taken up on modernization and integration of the band-shaped transport system of the „Tricity” (Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia). A few large residential estates have been s ited on the non-developed areas of the seaside terrace o f Oliwa. New building has penetrated even to the areas of Stara Oliwa not only clashing with its old buildings but even ousting the latter. The sum to tal o f the problems and difficulties involved in spatial development of Stara Oliwa turned out so large eventually that the municipal authorities have decided to examine the possibilities of their being resolved by way o f a competition. In v iew of the numerous, still preserved values of Oliwa and, also, of the necessity of reconciling those values with the complex problems of public transport system, the work on preparation of the detailed conditions of the competition was extremely difficult and lasted for a year and a half. Moreover, as has turned out in this connection, the earlier decisions of the conservator bodies and urban plans took into consideration but the most important hi:torical monuments and complexes without sufficient understanding of the significance o f the broadly conceived historical, cultural, spatial and landscape values of Stara Oliwa and its environs. Oliwa’s cultural and spatial values a s a w h o l e were neither duly appreciated and respected. Preparations for the competition brought into relief the necessity of reconsideration of a number of the decisions already made and, even, withdrawal of those on allocation of the respective building sites. They have necessitated as well a thorough review of not only the detailed plan of the whole of Oliwa but also verification of some e le ments and assumptions of the general plan. The experience acquired during the preparations for the competition discussed have revealed as well the imperative need for embracing with conservator’s protection not only the respective monuments but also larger and smaller spatial complexes and units of cultural and landscape values, inclusive of their immediate environment. Another imperative displayed by the competition was that o f a closer than so far cooperation between the conservation bodies and the authorities responsible for the preparation and approval of regional development plans, especially at the stage of drawing up those plans. The so-called Oliwa competition made a telling illustration of the significant part played in laying down the conditions of a competition which involves the problems of historical heritage, spatial, cultural and landscape aspects, by specialists emotionally engaged in protection of cultural heritage of the nation. For it was precisely during the preparations for the competition and its proceedings as such that it has turned out that, with duly thought out concepts and adequately colected and elaborated documentation, it is possible to win over proper understanding of the weight o f the problem o f rational shaping and protection o f the cultural and spatial environment not only on the part of conservators, architects and town planners but also of the authorities and the general public. The final outcome of the case of Oliwa is not merelly the positive resolution of many urgent spatial problems of that beautiful historical district and ta king up the work on a new elaboration of the detailed plan o f Oliwa as a whole, the plan based on new assumptions and directives. Its no less essential result is the fact that the case discussed has also made the local conservation bodies, the circles of town planners and architects, the authorities concerned, and the community at large, more sensitive to the question of comprehensive and hormonious shaping and protection o f the cultural and spatial values o f not solely the agglomeration of Gdańsk but the whole of the region concerned.

Keywords

PL

konkurs na zagospodarowanie centrum Oliwy; zagospodarowanie przestrzenne zespołu portowo-miejskiego Gdańsk-Gdynia; plan „GD”; zagospodarowanie Oliwy

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1976
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 253-272

Dates

published

1976

Contributors

author

Stankiewicz Jerzy

• doc. dr hab., Politechnika Gdańska