Community engagement as a sustainable tool in transforming mass housing urban structures. Case study of Petržalka estate, Bratislava, Slovakia

Abstract

Engagement of public in the planning and design of our cities is one of the most basic foundations of the democratic society and is directly reflected on the quality of life of each individual. The public participation is necessary at least from two reasons - firstly, in order to define the real needs of local residents, and secondly, to gather feedback on the top-down of proposed regulations and planning documents. Especially in the countries after transition, a particular environment of panel mass housing estates presents a specific challenge to meet these trends. These areas can be characterised by lack of identity and individual attachment of local resident to their everyday spaces, the lack of demarcated public/private spaces - or, in other words - the plethora or "shared" no-one space. This leads to serious problems for city officials. The lack of organised communities means very difficult position in acquainting the inhabitants with development of the district, for example the area of central axis which was planned as main transport and facilities corridor but which was never built and so today has become a huge abandoned space. In Slovakia, at the same time, the areas of mass housing areas represent at least 70% of the whole housing stock, and the methods of their sustainable transformation are therefore an urgent topic for many urban planners and municipality offices. The proposed article deals with the case of redevelopment of area in mass housing estate in Petržalka, part of the capital of Bratislava in Slovakia, based on the piloting various different methods of community involvement and community building. Furthermore, the article contributes to the general topic of finding the balanced tools of planning and regulating the sustainable city development and applicability of proposed methods as a standard urban design and planning tool from the municipal level.