Renovations of Public Spaces at Junctions with Water – Boulevards. Case Studies in a Spatial, Visual and Usable Context

Abstract

Transformations of public spaces in accordance with Jan Gehl’s theory of “Cities for people” create attractive places for users. Attractiveness should be understood here not only in visual terms, but also as correspondingly useful. Attractive places are friendly and easily accessible places for people, including those with various disabilities. In Wroclaw a great advantage of urban space is the direct proximity of water (the Odra River along with canals and tributaries). The recent renovations of the river banks – waterfront boulevards, are a very interesting research material. The subject of the article are various aspects and contexts of these modernizations, also in a comparative analysis with similar foreign implementations.