Revitalisation through culture on the example of Hamburg, Grudziądz and Bydgoszcz

In many places, warehouse buildings, especially historic ones, are the inner periphery of cities – difficult to adapt, lacking modern functions, going to rack and ruin, or being unused. Regarding that they often occupy large areas in attractive locations, such as on riverbanks or along former commercial tracts, they require the authorities or decision-makers to undertake revitalisation projects whose scale and degree of difficulty make them exceptional. The Speicherstadt in Hamburg is considered a model for urban revitalisation of historic granary complexes. Together with the construction of a modern residential district called HafenCity, it is an example of successful revitalisation of the architectural and urban fabric. It is also an attempt to transform the city’s former inner periphery into a centre of creative activities. In this article, the authors focused on the revitalisation of lesser-known historical granary complexes – in Grudziądz and Bydgoszcz, Poland – which differ from the Hamburg complex not only in scale, but also in age. They posed questions about the universality of the solutions applied, especially those that postulated a new life for districts based on the development of functions supporting social and cultural activities. The paper was created using source analysis, case studies and field observations

Granary · Social change · Urban planning · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Sustainable Urban and Rural Development · Urban Development and Cultural Heritage · Architecture