Maryana Kaplinska* Some Theoretical and Methodological Issues of Regeneration of the Market Squares in the Historic Towns of

Abstract There are around a hundred towns in the region of Galicia, which have the official status of historic settlements. They are in- cluded into the appropriate list and should be conserved. The market squares in these towns are among the most interesting urban odjects of unique architectural and urban features. The paper is dedicated to the issues of their regeneration, more pre- cisely, some theoretical and methodological ones. The meaning of the very notion of regeneration and also the essentiality of an urban object are studied. From such a perspective the directions of the research of regeneration issues are suggested.

Keywords: market squares, historic towns, Galicia, regeneration, urban object.

The notion of regeneration has been accepted into the Ukrai- school, in which it has acquired a broader con- nian restoration from the Soviet era science, in which it was tent in general. Although therein it is also not generally interpreted in the late 80’s in the sense of a specific possible to avoid a confusion in such terms method of intervention into a historic and architectural en- as regeneration, renewal, redevelopment, vironment of the town. As L. Prybieha says, this notion, and revitalization, rehabilitation etc., because, as along with it the notion of revalorization can be occasionally Peter Roberts has noted: “urban regeneration found in slightly different meanings in publications in the late is a widely experienced but little understood 70-ies of the 20th century, especially in the works of I. Hlyamzha, phenomenon­ ”7. With this in mind, it is used to E. Mikhaylowsky, J. Raninsky1. For example, J. Raninsky, at- outline the conceptual boundaries first in the tributing regeneration and revalorization to the “methods of works dedicated to the regeneration, in par- reconstruction that can be used for monuments of urban de- ticular basing on the wordings by C. Couch K. velopment”2, defines them as the restructuring or urban con- and P. Roberts. Couch underlines that “urban servation. Revalorization according to E. Mikhaylowsky is the regeneration moves beyond the aims, aspi- “return of aesthetic significance”3. Meanwhile Edgar Puchins, rations and achievments of urban renewal, the author of the regeneration project for Old Riga, defined which is seen as a process of essential physi- regeneration as “the transformation of historically formed ur- cal change, urban development (or redevel- ban complex by restoring its lost parts, planning and spatial opment), with its general mission and less structure, composition integrity and functional activity” [1]. well-defined purpose, and urban revitalization This definition became the base for all following ones we can (or rehabilitation) which whilst suggests the find in the Ukrainian scientific literature: “the revival of an ur- need for action, fails to specify a precise meth- ban organism with the reconstruction of its lost parts”4; “the od of approach”8. At the same time Roberts recreation of lost planning and spatial structure parts, compo- defines it as “comprehensive and integrated sition integrity and functional activity of historic towns or their vision and action which leads to the resolution centers, distinct ensembles, architectural complexes”5; “the of urban problems and which seeks to bring restoration of the historic spatial structure of a monumental about a lasting improvement in the economic, urban formation and its functional and aesthetic inclusion into physical, social and environmental condition the life of the town or another settlement”6. of an area that has been subject to change”9. Such definitions of regeneration are not entirely consistent The author also stresses that regeneration ap- with the interpretation of this notion in the Western scientific proaches should focus on far-reaching strate-

* PhD Student, Maryana Kaplinska, National University “ Polytechnic”, Department for the Restoration of Architectural and Artistic 60 Heritage, e-mail: [email protected] gic goals10. The normative definition of regeneration, which urban objects, put them into the list of monu- is based on the American approach of the period of 1980-s11 ments and preserve them in such a capacity. has been proposed in Great Britain in 2003. According to it re- The principal difference between an urban generation is “the holistic process of reversing economic, so- and architectural object is a serious meth- cial and physical decay in areas where it has reached a stage odological problem, and it does not allow us when market forces alone will not suffice”12. to transfer mechanically the tried and tested Scientists of the Polish school put similar content into the no- methods from architectural restoration, and tion of revitalization which is defined as the system of mea- requires to ascend to a qualitatively new level sures to return the areas that have lost their social or econom- of understanding of the item. To do this, it is ic functions to life and sustainable development. In particular, important first of all to find out what exactly in the twelvevolumed work “Rewitalizacja miast polskich jako the difference is. For its part, it will be a step sposób zachowania dziedzictwa materialnego i duchowego towards the definition of urban object itself, oraz czynnik zrównoważonego rozwoju” revitalization is pre- as well as to the interpretation of the essence sented as “coordinated process carried out by local authori- of its cultural value. ties together as well as local communities and other stake- It seems expedient to consider the problem holders, and which is a part of the development policy and from the perspective of systems theory. The aims to prevent the degradation of urban space and crises occurrence of new qualities of the whole in phenomena, encourages the development of quality changes comparison with the qualities of its elements due to social and economic activities rising, improvement of is intuitively explained by the emergent prop- living conditions and protection of national heritage, taking erties of the system, or the so-called nonaddi- into account the principles of sustainable development”13. tivity. A number of researchers, including the Thus, the notion of regeneration in the global scientific con- author of this paper, note that urban object text emerges as a universal phenomenon of comprehensive, cannot be a simple sum of architectural build- all-embracing solution of problems of the city in the paradigm ings it is composed of15. But a critical analysis of sustainable development, which includes such methods of shows that is not an entirely correct approach intervention into the urban environment as reconstruction, to see the emergence of some unexpected restoration, revalorization, revitalization etc. As the object of qualities as the property of the system. In par- regeneration any already formed urban structure can be con- ticular, A. Korosov argues that the emergence sidered if it suffer losses or decline. is the absolute property of all systems, and Whereas the cultural heritage is seen on a par with all the the principle of emergence involves the study other resources that should be preserved and increased for of the nature of specific qualities of systems subsequent generations. Sometimes the term “heritage-led that depend not just on the quality of system regeneration” is used to emphasis the conservative focus of elements, but also on its internal relations regeneration in the conditions of intervention into a valuable (i.e. the composition) and relations with the historic and architectural environment. system-spanning environment16. In contrast to this the term of regeneration in the Ukrainian From these positions an urban object can be restoration is used only in relation to valuable historic urban defined as a structural element of a town or entities or even to the monuments of urban development14. a city, which territorial cohesion is caused by That is, the aspect of an urban object cultural value is accen- the unity of its functional and spatial orga- tuated (its historical planning and spatial pattern, functional nization. organization, aesthetics). At the same time a wide range of A comprehensive approach requires to de- strategic issues, such as social, economic, environmental, compose an urban object into three levels: communicational, technological etc. as well as the goal of macro (level of a city in which the object sustainable development itself are overlooked. serves as a structural element); meso (actu- Let’s pause at this point in analyzing the terminological as- ally targets the urban object as a system, in pect, and turn back to determine the regeneration below, af- which we can allocate sublevels for analy- ter considering the object of our study. sis e. g. urban quarter) and micro (by taking Legal grounds to speak about an urban object from the per- buildings as elements and also distinguishing spective of its cultural value have appeared in 2010, when a lower level of elements – architectural de- this notion was normalized in the Law on “Conservation of tails). Cultural Heritage” and distinguished from an architectural ob- At the same time, moreover such an urban ject, while previously there was only the notion of an archi- object as a market square is a complicated tectural and urban object (united). This amendment was of architectural and urban complex (or, in case a great theoretical and practical importance. To begin with, it of its complete composition – an ensemble), demonstrated the recognition of another nature of the urban it also integrates the entire range of constitu- objects cultural value, in contrast to architectural ones. And ents of the town and can be seen as its re- nowadays it gives the reason to inventory a huge number of duced model. Thus, a correct solving the re-

61 generation issues requires a multidisciplinary research of the Architectural and urban space solution. That market squares in the historic towns of Galicia. is the most fully developed and highlighted in It should be noted that the Ukrainian researchers have drawn the literature side of the problem. But it’s re- attention to the importance of going beyond the context of maining still unresolved and as we’ve said the architectural and urban form in the study of urban object. main reason for this consists in trying to apply In particular M. Bevz speaking about the conservation areas the methods of architectural restoration to an in historic towns emphasizes that they “usually are not only urban object. The present day methodology architectural and urban planning monuments, but also com- of designing a valuable from the perspective prehencive social and functional complexes”17. However, of cultural heritage environment is based on these ideas have not acquired a logical conclusion, because the evaluation of buildings it includes. In gen- (as mentioned above) the recovering of the lost parts of ur- eral it means the restoration of architectural ban objects is been still declared as the purpose of their re - monuments; the reconstraction of significant generation. And that contradicts the very analytical nature and ordinary historic buildings as well as lost of restoration at the present stage of the scientific thought ones and the removal of disharmonious build- evolution. ings or correction of their architectural appear- Similarly the vision of the regeneration purpose as the need ance. Each of these methods, except probably of functional adaptation of an urban object into a town or- the restoration of architectural monuments, is ganism seems not entirely correct. We believe such adapta- very difficult to substantiate in a scientific way, tion is better to apply to apart architectural monuments. so long as the market square is an object of Urban objects whether valuable or ordinary from the per- a very continuous and complicated construc- spective of historical and cultural heritage are usually put into tion history. Therefore the reconstruction to a settlement life in one way or another and need not adapta- a specific date or period, or the so-called sty- tion but effective management in terms of economy, ecology, listic as well as holistic restoration cannot be functional organization, public relations, etc., it means con- regarded as appropriate, but more as emo- tinuous, comprehensive, balanced development, everything tionally and romantically caused. what the notion of sustainable development includes. A great problem is a bad state of preservation The market squares of the historic towns and cities in their of many market squares in the historic towns universality and comprehensiveness of urban qualities illus- of Galicia. Most of them have undergone trate the best the fact that urban objects need development, farther transformations in the second half of but not adaptation. Thus, the issues of their regeneration are the 20th century, more precisely, they were to be considerably augmented. And the regeneration in the been deliberately destroying, e.g. the mar- Ukrainian scientific context can be defined as the compre- ket squares in Hrymayliv, Husiatyn, Deliatyn, hensive process of transformation of a valuable in cultural Rava Ruska, , , Ternopil, , sense urban object that aims to preserve its cultural heri- are nowadays totally lost. The tage, as well as its sustainable development. well-preserved objects are the market squares Therefore interdisciplinary approach requires deep research- in Berezhany, , Horodok, , es in other directions in addition to the historical and archi- Ivano-Frankivsk, Pidhatsi, , Striy, tectural or historical and urban studies. Let’s try to outline the Shscyrec and some else. The others have directions that must be included in the subject of a market fragmented and deformed in different ways square regeneration. structures, remaining the most attractive for Transport problems solution. Motorways pass currently development town areas. And all actual de- trough more than 80% of the market squares in the historic velopment processes have one thing in com- towns of Galicia. The 8 of them have the roads of interna- mon that can be described as an interferentce tional level, 11 – of national, 35 – of regional level. The others phenomenon (a complicated and multifaceted have local roads. Although the presence of a road was his- phenomenon, which can be interpreted as the torically essential for city-forming and shaping and the roads violation of one comunication system under crossed the market squares from ancient times, nowadays the influence of another. In our case we apply it is important to withdraw the transport beyond the market. this notion to architectural space, recognizing There are two main arguments for this: the traffic threatens its communicative and cognitive functions). the preservation of the square’s physical structure; market That causes the grass-roots appearance of square is the main public urban space in the major number overscaled, disproportional and malformed of towns, in which pedestrians-first approach is to be imple- buildings while the scientific approaches to mented. This problem can be solved only by developing of solve that issue are not clear. an innovative and integrated transport system for the whole Narrative environment edification. The out- town. It is complicated by the fact that the streets of historic put of the study to the narrative level makes towns are usually too narrow, but they cannot be expanded it possible to justify the design solutions for because of their historical and cultural value. valuable architectural and urban space. The

62 narrative approach stems from the understanding a historic velopment of public relations is called to solve urban object as a document and an inexhaustible informa- several main objectives: to raise the overall tion source. And the main postulate of the approach is that level of public culture, to arouse the interest in architecture is a powerful means of communication. It allows the town’s history, to encourage individual and to use all possible tools flexibly to disclose the cultural value public initiative as well as the sense of respon- of the object not only for experts but for non-specialists too, sibility for their urban space transformations. especially local residents, attracting them by using the visual language of architectural space to study and understand the Conclusion history of a place, educating patriotism and responsibility for The notion of regeneration in the Ukrainian res- its development in such a way. toration concerns valuable in terms of cultural Ecological conditions creating. This aspect is usually ignored heritage urban objects and is aimed actually in the studies of historic urban objects and the problems of at reconstructing of their lost parts and also their regeneration. Therefore, ecological problems of a valu- at the adapting of these objects to the town’s able historic urban object are just as important as ecological life. As mentioned above, this aim should be problems of an ordinary one and we are not to forget that any much expanded and mean the preservation of urban space is first of all an ecosystem where a human lives. the whole cultural heritage of an urban object So the aim is to create the most comfortable and ecologically as well as its sustainable development. Study- clean environment. However in the market squares in addi- ing the market squares in the historic towns of tion to the typical environmental issues a conflict between the Galicia the following directions of the research ecological approach and the need to preserve a historically of their regeneration issues are suggested: formed urban space arises. Town parks arranged on the terri- transport problems solution; architectural and tory of 56 of about 100 investigated market squares in historic urban space solution; narrative environment towns of Galicia in the second half of the 20th century (e.g. edification; ecological conditions creating; in Busk, , Horodok, Komarne, Mykolayiv, , economic strategy development; public rela- Novy Yarychiv, Pidhaytsi). That was a special method to block tions development. visual connections of market squares spatial compositions. The use of greening in such a way allowed to cover the mar- ENDNOTES: 1 ket square space up, even if it had well-preserved historic L. Pribega, Protection and Restoration of Architectural and Urban Heritage of , , 2009, p. 249. buildings and planning structure at that time. 2 Ibid. 3 Economic strategy development. There is traditionally Ibid. 4 V. Tymofiyenko, Archiecture and Monumental Art: Terms a great interest to economic problems, but deep research and Notions, Kyiv, 2002. 5 from the perspective of regeneration was not carried out in A. Marder, Architecture. A Short Glossary, Kyiv: Budi- velnyk, 1995, p. 251. this field. The powerful economic potential that versatile cul- 6 L. Protection and Restoration of Architectural and Urban tural heritage of the historic towns gives is not used unfor- Heritage of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2009, p. 252. 7 P. Roberts, H. Skyes, Urban Regeneration: A Handbook, tunately, as well as the town-forming role of the heritage is London: Sage Publications, 2000, p. 3 8 not yet understood. The economic problems on their own go C. Couch, Urban Renewal: Theory and Practice, Macmillan, 1990, p. 6 beyond our actual study but should be clearly outlined and 9 P. Roberts, H. Skyes, Urban Regeneration: A Handbook, included in the list of regeneration issues. London: Sage Publications, 2000, p. 17 10 P. Roberts, H. Skyes, Urban Regeneration: A Handbook, Public relations development. One of the most complicated London: Sage Publications, 2000, p. 18 11 problems of regeneration is the lack of understanding the val- G. Benoit, Urban regeneration in Europe: State of the art and Perspectives, Göteborg, 2010, p. 5 ue of cultural heritage in general and the value of historic built 12 Ibid. 13 environment in particular. That can be described as a global Z. Ziobrowski, Założenia polityki rewitalizacji w Polsce / Rewitalizacja miast polskich jako sposób zachowania dzie- crisis of culture in the Ukrainian society that have various os- dzictwa materialnego i duchowego oraz czynnik zrównowa- tents and deep roots. The methods of development and eco- żonego rozwoju, Kraków, 2010, T. 10, p. 9. 14 Pribega, Protection and Restoration of Architectural and nomic activities in the historic architectural environment in Urban Heritage of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2009, p. 249. 15 Galicia indicates that several decades in which the heritable M. Kaplinska, Reconstruction of the Market Squares Lost Building Sock in Historic Towns: Methodological and Practi- tradition of urban systems evolution was interrupted, haven’t cal Aspects / GAC, Lviv, 2011, p. 47. 16 passed without consequences. This fact is clearly illustrated A. Korosov, The Emergent Principle in Ecology, Principles of Ecology, 2012, N. 3, pp. 48–66. by the situation when disharmonious objects destroying spa- 17 M. Bevz, Cultural Heritage Conservation Objectives and tial composition and architectural character of historic market the Methods of Urban Design in the Historic Towns / DPR- MU, Kyiv, 2004, N. 7, p. 79. squares are the churches newly emerged directly in these ar- eas on the initiative of local communities (e.g. in Mageriv, Ne- BIBLIOGRAPHY: myriv, Pidhaitsi, ), and neither the community nor the [1] E. Puchins, Historical and Urban Planning Fundamentals priests do not think about what the market square has always of Old Riga Regeneration, Riga: Zinatne, 1989. [2] V. Vechersky, Urban Heritage in Ukraine (Theory and Pra- been. While it’s been a place of market itself, the road usually ctice of the Historical, Urban and Heritagwguarding Studies passed across it, and people were executed here etc. – it’s not of Settlements, Kyiv, 2003. [3] Merriam-Webster Dictionary. An Encyclopædia Britanni- too scrupulous choice of a church location. Therefore, the de- ca Company, 2015. http://www.merriam-webster.com/

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