REVIVE TO SURVIVE AND DEVELOP. CITY CENTRES OF SHEFFIELD (U.K.) AND KATOWICE (PL)

In the beginnings of 21 century revitalization by means of public open space planning is becoming more and more popular. The purpose of the paper is to juxtapose (not to compare) two European examples of public open spaces created in areas, which are neglected in urban and landscape way: The revitalized centre of the Sheffield post-industrial steel-city in England and the former coal mine area of the present new Silesian Museum in Katowice, Poland.

The empirical and analytical methods were applied, like in situ analysis in Sheffield: scientific walk, photo-documentation, interviews with experts, and research of professional material from the City Council (2014, 2016–2017). In Katowice: the field work, professional architectural supervision of the investment process, as well as the cooperation with architects and city planners (also by the Master Plan 2010) had been carried out during eight years (2006–2014).

The results show various approaches to public open space planning in post-industrial city-centres. In Sheffield the main attention is paid to the interconnected and safe pedestrian areas. In contrary in Katowice the planning efforts focus on architectural design, while the easy accessible and networked common spaces are missing. These differences are rooted in the urban and landscape strategies, assigned in the master plan (in one case), and the lack of such strategies (in the other case).