Housing in a Contemporary City: Liberal Economy Versus Sustainability

Abstract

Housing development is a predominant component of urban fabric in cities. Its quality is defining standard of living in terms of inhabitation, work and leisure. High demand for new homes and high costs of housing property purchase in most of European countries stimulate rapid development of new settlements. The aim of the paper is to identify and characterise selected housing market factors that influence contemporary urban development of cities in Poland. After 1990, when the economic transformation in Poland started, it has strongly influenced the shape and spatial circumstances in Polish cities. The liberal economy in the period of transition did not result in many social housing projects. The role of the state investor, who has been building the major part of housing estates before 90. was taken over by developers who build houses and housing estates for sale or rent. This is a typical feature of the Polish housing architecture in the discussed period. On the opposite pole to the phenomena mentioned above various concepts of sustainable, high quality city have been elaborated. A sustainable city provides their residents a good quality of living: satisfactory social links within the neighbourhood and easy access to work and all kinds of services accessible by public transportation. Location criteria for new subdivisions protect valuable areas and respect local climate phenomena. Building technologies implemented enable saving of energy and other recourses and also improve the microclimate of the neighbourhood. It may be assumed that the attempts to make cities more sustainable depend mainly on housing market factors as land supply for developers, prices of homes and residential preferences. Nevertheless, these factors often force development projects contradictory to the rules of sustainability. The conclusion of the paper therefore will attempt to formulate the diagnosis of the relationship between housing market and requirements of sustainable development of cities.