Public Spaces and Cultural Heritage in Community Projects - The Example of Warsaw

Abstract

Public space in cities is widely seen as a developmental resource. It thus becomes a kind of urban product, and a lure for a range of groups of current and potential users. Cities compete for prestige and standing by creating new spaces or altering existing ones. The author attempts to assess the extent to which filling such a space with historical content is a significant contributing factor to the pursuit of such goals and the fulfilment of these tasks. The background for the analysis are projects submitted for the citizens' participatory budget for the Polish capital, Warsaw.