Problems of rural development in vicinity of urban agglomeration

Abstract

Contemporary rural complexes situated in the vicinity of urban agglomerations are areas extremely vulnerable to influences produced by the nearby living and growing towns. The architecture in these areas is highly diverse and often evokes spatial chaos. The purpose of this paper has been to discuss the issues of shaping the building structure of villages located near an urban agglomeration as affected by the impact of the city's spatial structure. Another aim is to prove the hypothesis that the quality, needs and standards of living of people in a large town have a bearing on the contemporary architecture in the countryside. Olsztyn, a town lying in the Province of Warmia and Mazury (województwo Warmińsko-Mazurskie) in Northeastern Poland, can serve as an example. The structure and territorial development of Olsztyn have a strong influence on the shape of rural architecture in neighbouring villages, for example, in the commune of Dywity, where villages are composed of rural settings that have existed for hundreds of years. The rural areas located within the impact generated by an urban agglomeration are attracting much interest among young people as a potential place to settle down and live. The process of growth in such areas, due to the increased migration of urban population, is frequently a cause of the uncontrolled expansion of new building developments, which leads to distortions in the spatial order. Increasingly often, the traditional architecture of the Polish countryside in the region of Warmia and Mazury, shaped over the past centuries, undergoes degradation because of the new architecture, which has no connection with the region's history. The post-war period, even when contrasted with the losses suffered during the Second World War, has caused immense transformations in the spatial structure of the countryside, resulting from the exchange of the pre- and post-war populations and the construction of brick buildings, replacing traditional timber cottages or farm buildings, thereby introducing a new quality to the cultural landscape of the region.