Adaptive Reuse of Architectural Heritage and Its Role in the Post-Disaster Reconstruction of Urban Identity: Post-Communist Łódź

Abstract

The article examines the role of the adaptive reuse of architectural heritage in urban identity reconstruction and strengthening undertaken after the disaster caused by a strong economic and social crisis. The main research material included activities and projects implemented in post-communist Łódź, one of the largest Polish cities. The city developed extremely dynamically at the beginning of the 19th century as a centre of textile industry. Characteristic factories located in the city centre operated continuously until the end of the 1980s, when the transformation brought about radical political changes, as a result of which Łódź experienced a rapid process of deindustrialisation. The nineteenth-century architectural heritage played an important role in the search for ways to regenerate the city and redefine its identity. Starting from the local, i.e., historical, social or identity contexts, we are led to universal conclusions, concerning important problems, issues and challenges related to the confrontation of architectural heritage with contemporary needs and expectations.

Art in Post-Industrial Facilities—Strategies of Adaptive Reuse for Art Exhibition Function in Poland

“…The researched objects constitute a manifestation of a sustainable policy due to the extension of the life cycle of buildings and preservation of embodied energy, which would otherwise be wasted. Moreover, they limit the use of urban areas that have never been developed (the so-called greenfield sites) and prevent fragmentation of the urban structure [11] by filling gaps in the city structure and regenerating the surroundings. The importance of the object's location is an often-emphasized aspect [16], but in the case of the analyzed group, it seems to be a factor that determines adaptation due to the significant similarity of location in the city's urban structure.…”

“…Adaptive reuse has an interdisciplinary character and focuses on aspects connected with conservation, art history, architecture, interior architecture, engineering, and spatial planning [9][10][11][12]. In the process of changes, the importance of not only the external architectural form of a building is emphasized, but also its interior, with the transformation of the existing space [13,14].…”

Circular economy and cultural heritage conservation: a proposal for integrating Level(s) evaluation tool

“…and social benefits (in terms of employment, social relationships, etc.) (Conejos et al, 2011;Nocca, 2017;Sowinska-Heim, 2020). Therefore, it can produce multidimensional benefits in the perspective of the circular economy.…”

“…Since the 1970s there has been a strong emphasis on the social values of cultural heritage. There is a clear increase in awareness of the importance of the intangible values of cultural heritage and the need to take them into account alongside (with the same importance) the tangible values in a decision-making process of the reuse of the asset itself (Fusco Girard, 2020;Nocca, 2017;Sowinska-Heim, 2020).…”

The Financial Sustainability of Cultural Heritage Reuse Projects: An Integrated Approach for the Historical Rural Landscape

“…In particular, the widely recognized imperative to consider sustainability as a multidimensional paradigm has highlighted the opportunity to include cultural heritage as one of the primary sources of values for current and future generations [2]. In this sense, cultural heritage adaptive reuse, intended as a conscious process of new value creation [3,4], based on existing buildings' change of use to meet current needs [5], stands as a promising approach. The conceptual concurrence among sustainability and adaptive reuse approach places new challenges on the preservation since the expected outcome is both the assets' protection and the preservation of their historical and heritage significance [6,7].…”