The idea of sustainable smart city has extensive scientific literature where the architects’ role in designing built environments, being a physical platform for implementing “elderly-friendly” solutions, is poorly referenced. The main objective of the article is to define the role of architects in creating the image of sustainable smart cities, focusing on senior citizens. The paper surveys the available literature on the subject and describes pilot studies carried out at the indicative level among the students of one of architecture faculties in Poland, based on the design thinking method. The studies demonstrate how students imagine intelligent elderly-friendly cities in the future from the architects’ perspective. In addition, examples of other studies with the students of that faculty are presented. Following the analyses combining the conclusions of research and pilot studies with the students, a tabular summary of the architects’ tasks and roles were provided—these were divided into six building blocks of a smart city and as a reference to the elements shaping the image of cities, districts and buildings. This is a new, innovative classification of architectural issues. The perspectives for further desk research and field participatory research were indicated, which should, in the future, translate into a novel holistic approach to the problem.

Due to extending life span of our society, the issues involving problems in the seniors' environment are undertaken in architectural design more and more frequently. These issues are also a part of the teaching syllabus at the Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology. Students understand the necessity of facing such problems, therefore, they participate willingly in projects concerning this field of architecture, and often chose designs of senior homes for their BSc and MSc theses, using architectural and urban solutions consistent with the needs of the elder-ly living nowadays. Accordingly, a question arises whether these needs are long-term and whether they will be the same or similar in 30-50 years' time. Such question is relevant for two reasons: • First and foremost -in accordance with the life cycle of buildings -there is a chance that the facilities (senior homes, care facilities) that are built nowadays will still be used in the future, so, after repairs and adjustments they should fulfil the needs and requirements of future seniors. • Secondly -will the seniors of the future be similar to the seniors of today? Will they follow the same behaviour, interests and hobbies? Will they suffer

The Silesian conurbation consists of cities, which in many aspects function as one metropolitan organism. This paper is an attempt to characterise the structure of the Silesian conurbation not as composed of cities, but as a system of districts, in the context of the theory of polycentric systems and the importance of quarters for modern urban areas. The authors present a model of the Silesian Conurbation as a set of quarters of various characteristics: housing estates, local centres, industrial districts, etc. The transition from the conurbation into quarters is discussed and the search for elements that combine and bind the quarters space with external elements in view of social and spatial structures. Within such structures, a description of a typical urban quarter – Rokitnica in Zabrze is given, together with a concept of the revitalization of a local quarter centre. The elaborations were prepared within the study subjects “Urban Revitalization and Regeneration” and “Regional Planning” at the Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology (course coordinator: Professor Krzysztof Gasidło, teacher: Michał Stangel).

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