Scholarly record

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE OF SEASIDE RESORTS

Wojciech Bal

Abstract

The way seaside resorts have functioned from the very beginning of their founding idea has been the result of symbiosis – a close connection between the town and nature. West Pomeranian seaside tourist resorts have developed into today's resorts from former fishing villages or small summer resorts. Before the post-war political division of the historical Province of Pomerania, its resorts formed a uniform set of spatial assumptions, characterized by similar features and originating from common cultural roots. Essentially, the whole idea of therapeutic rest was to be based on a specific “bloodstream” of the assumption: on a system of public spaces which interpenetrate and complement each other. Unfortunately, over many years, we have observed transformations, which are more and more disturbing, occurring both on the urban, architectural and social level, in relation to seaside resorts, and in particular to their main determinants and the background of the nature of the locality’s public spaces. The analysis of changes in the public spaces of seaside resorts allows us to indicate the main values, problems and reasons for its low quality as well as desirable activities for its revitalization. Seaside localities, not prepared for the land-grabbing development in terms of planning, are irretrievably losing places most valuable both from the landscape perspective and the future layout and arrangement of the public space related to their communication links. Traditional public spaces are now being replaced by substitutes, namely private spaces made available to the public. The space of resorts was subordinated to commercial solutions, not balanced by a conscious planning of or adding quality to the public space development.

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