This article explores green space planning in Warsaw between 1916 and 1954, as an example of the creative development of the concept of shaping green spaces through years in the city. Based on relevant plans and documents this study shows that regardless of the conditions or political system, the urban green areas adopted after the war was optimal, because it resulted from the real needs of the state capital, which after many years of partitions, regained independence, and thus the ability to self-decide about its further development. The article examines the impact of planning concepts from the interwar period on the reconstruction of Warsaw in shaping green spaces. The paper focuses on indicating the similarities and differences in urban plans derived from the interwar time and the “social-realistic” period. The research starts with studies at the general level and leads to detailed solutions. The research uses the method of critical analysis of source data, including cartographic studies and the comparative method. In addition to strictly scientific research methods, the study also uses artistic evaluation of the designed urban greenery assumptions. As a result of the war, many European cities suffered severe damages. Warsaw belonged to the most experienced in this area. Paradoxically, the city’s destruction has become an opportunity for rebuilding it as a better one, also in terms of strengthening the resources of green urban areas. Already in the pre-war period, the need to increase the city’s area resources was strongly articulated to enable a coherent and future-oriented urban policy. The idea of strengthening the field base constituting urban resources was at the root of the idea of cooperative activity so popular in the Scandinavian countries or Germany. However, in Poland, right after the war took a pathological form. Under the so-called decree on communalization, also called the Bierut Decree, the ownership of land within its administrative boundaries was transferred to the municipality of Warsaw, which facilitated the process of implementing changes. The concept of building Warsaw in 1945 assumed functional segregation of the city following the idea of Le Corbusier. The overall thought was to rebuilt Warsaw as the town for the new “socialist” type of citizens. Although the urban planners working during the so-called “social-realistic” period (1945-1954) affirmed that their ideas of the development of towns were entirely new, the plans prepared for Warsaw depict many similarities to the ones worked out in the interwar period, from 1916 on. At the same time, the plan assumed maintaining wedge-shaped zones of greenery entering downtown. Subsequent proposals of the first post-war years followed this principle. Subsequent concepts for the development of Warsaw arising in the second half of the 1940s were consistent with the assumptions of the Athens Charter of 1933, guaranteeing residents’ access to greenery, accompanying residential districts, or creating a city-wide recreational space.

This article seeks to underline the role played in project work by the history of city development. From the outset, the teaching on this subject at the Faculty of Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology combined theory and practice together closely, as is evidenced by both the curriculum as such and the ways in which it was taught. Moreover, it is attested clearly in the CVs of those who taught the subject. This paper, therefore, presents the roles played by various different urban planners and researchers into the history of urban planning, when it comes to the evolution of teaching on planning propaedeutic and urban-planning design. From the moment it came into being in 1915, the Faculty of Architecture had thought architectural planning and planning as such, as well as urban-planning design, with this also linking up with the study of the history of architecture and the history of city planning. Only the second institution in Poland (after Lvov in 1913) to establish a Department of City Planning (hence one dealing with urban-planning design), lecturers here were both practising architects and urban planners, and researchers in the field of history. The co-founder of the Faculty of Architecture, Tadeusz Tołwiński (1887-1951) began teaching in this field with a view to its serving as a basis for further work on design in cultural circles. And in his first handbook on urban-planning design (from 1934), that author devoted his first volume to a discussion of historical cities. The second then dealt with the design of the contemporary city, while the third volume dealt with the design of urban green space. T. Tołwiński’s approach to design took account of the achievements in the new field thereof that urban planning represented, such as the zoning of cities and the development of communal transport; while also linking this up with the sensitivity of a designer seeking to create a beautiful and healthy environment for living in the city that is at the same time loaded with significance. Wacław Ostrowski (1907-1990) expanded the scope of teaching on the urban-planning history in order to include the city in the times of the Industrial Revolution, as well as the start of the 20th century. Affording broad treatment to the matter of history of city planning, he at the same time drew attention to the ecological, social and cultural dimensions of the city creation process. Teresa Zarębska (1932-2003) continued with teaching of the basics of urban-planning design as first laid out by her predecessors. In her activity, she focused on research work, the results of which gained immediate implementation in the teaching programme for the subject, officially known as the History of City Planning. However, it was further her service to expand the teaching to include matters of the protection of urban structures. She then combined her research and teaching work with activity serving the protection of heritage towns and cities. And through to the present day, a key thrust to the teaching at WAPW has been for theory to link up with practice. For ultimately, there is no way to design in European cities without having some knowledge of the way in which they developed.

The paper aims to present the issues of protection of settlement with features of garden-cities in the suburban area of Warsaw. Howard’s idea of combining the advantages of the city and the village in one was so popular that it also affected Warsaw. In the area of Warsaw-city, as well as in its outskirts, garden-housing estates were built or planned. To this day, in the suburban landscape, these areas are distinguished by a vast content of greenery and small-town character, but the investment pressure is so intense that changes are taking place at a dynamic pace. Often, even the legal protection of these values is not sufficient to resist these urban processes. Thus, the purpose of the article is to show the problems of protecting settlement systems with the features of garden cities in the suburban area of Warsaw. The research uses the case study research method and critical analysis of formal and legal conditions. Interviews with residents were additional support. The examples given have shown that systems that have been protected for many years, with more stringent regulations, are in a much better position than places whose inheritance is being tried to preserve by introducing regulation now. In many cases, social resistance is so strong that even with evident advantages, it is not possible to introduce protective laws.