The subject of this article is the presentation of site conditions and the authors’ concept of the development of the degraded riverside area located in the city of Cracow-Kraków Zabłocie. The concept transforms the above-named area into a multifunctional complex including museum, coworking, business and hotel functions. The area subject to development borders three important districts of Cracow: Old Town (Stare Miasto), Grzegórzki and Podgórze on the bank of the Vistula (Wisła) river. In the land development and urban planning documents of the city of Cracow this area has been marked as the public space which is to become a local focal point or a local centre. The main objective of this work was to find answers to the posed research questions concerning the historic context, formal and legal state, significance for the community as well as economic and ecological implications of the area to be developed. The main purpose was to properly develop the degraded riverside embankment in the downtown environment. The research method was based on own mixed method which encompassed the studies of historical literature and the legal–formal status as well as in situ examinations, including the analyses of the condition of the built and natural environment, traffic and circulation as well as photographic documentation. The authors also familiarised themselves with the activities undertaken by the local community with a view to the area’s regeneration. On the grounds of initial investigations, the SWOT analysis was performed and the evaluation of groups of prospective users was conducted. Comparative studies were conducted including selected examples of European riverside development projects. In its assumptions, the proposed concept of the riverside development in Kraków-Zabłocie is to meet the needs of the local community, enable further development of tourism, which is very important to Cracow, and satisfy the paradigm of sustainable development. The effect is a multi-functional complex that becomes an inherent part of the existing context.

The article concerns the issue of intelligence-based design, which, during the design process undertaken by architects, signifies (according to the authors of the article) thinking about perceptual involvement in the built environment, designing together with people and for people and not forgetting about conveniences brought by technological progress. The way to smart cities, in respect of architectural solutions, leads (to a significant extent) through the smart design of multifunctional buildings based on the idea of sustainable development. The article-related research involved multiple case studies including three buildings, i.e., Asian Cross Road Over the Sea (ACROS) in Fukuoka, Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) in Luzern and Changsha Meixihu International Contemporary Art Museum (MICA) in Changsha. The above-named buildings, located in different countries, i.e., Japan, Switzerland and China, respectively, and erected within various time spans, i.e., the 1990s–2020, are characterized by primary common features—multifunctionality, large cubature and comparable program elements. The research presented in this article aimed to find and present the elements of intelligence-based design in the buildings and perform their comparative analysis taking into consideration the fact that the buildings were erected within the span of 30 years. The article presents a graphic comparative analysis of the intelligence-based design, a multicriterial case study (encompassing the concept, functional and spatial solutions and structure) of selected architectural objects. The article includes also a graphic comparative analysis of the very objects and concert halls: Fukuoka Symphony Hall (ACROS), Salle Blanche (KKL) and Hunan Grand Theatre (MICA).

The paper focuses on the downtown built environment (downtown waterfronts) and also on individual architectural objects which have an important function in such a space. The quality of the built environment affects its surroundings not only in a physical but also in a social way. To find the most appropriate ways of preventing the occurrence of the built environment pathologies in downtown areas, the study used the diagnostic technique of functional performance understood, among other things, as the ability to satisfy the stakeholders' needs and the impact of stakeholders' actions on their living environment. During the research, a comparative platform was found for the functional performance, the imperative of sustainable development and the ecosystem services of rivers and reservoirs. The investigations resulted in the creation of success indicators illustrated by examples of six voivodeship capital cities in Poland which have the strongest connection with the downtown built environment in waterfront areas, namely: Gdańsk, Szczecin, Warszawa (Warsaw), Kraków (Cracow), Wrocław and Poznań.

Artykuł dotyczy koncyliacyjnego rozwiązania projektowego w Międzynarodowym Centrum Kultury i Sztuki nad jeziorem Mexi [1]. Miasto Changsha w Chinach potrzebowało miejsca łączącego trzy ważne instytucje: dwa teatry i muzeum sztuki, skupione wokół wspólnej przestrzeni publicznej tak, aby ze sobą współgrały. Triada obiektów wielofunkcyjnego centrum zarówno w swoim kształcie, jak i w sposobie rozwiązania konfliktów projektowych, jest wyjątkowa i zasługuje na pogłębiony opis.