Studium warunków i problemów środowiska w ośrodkach zabytkowych

The author assumes that historical towns and villages all oveir the [world suffer destruction as a result of economic development. This concerns especially the youngest nations where industrialization happens very rapidly. Factors that break balance between man and his life environment arose as early as in the 19th century. To these factors belongs an incipient idea of new aglomerations which have spread around cities. They lean to historical centres and thus gradually turn into obstacles on the roads that link old towns with the economic base. As early as in the 19th century old — town districts were abandoned and technological achievements bred, prejudice against monuments of the past. The present task of restorers is to reconcile nowaday necessities with the old ones and to evaluate old cities. There is a tendency to destroy these historical centres and the disinclination to lay out money for their restoration is prevalent. We must also pay attention to the fact that the new environment we create is a spiritless and unnatural machine in possession of forms which are strange to us and overpower us. This paradoxical situation is connected with the use of free time it becomes clear that it is insufficient to solve this problem by organizing recreation areas. As they want to overcome inflexibility of modern constructions, people aim at cooperation in creation of new environment in which they would draw a -clear border line between the residential area and the area under protection where there would be room for both nature and historical substance. The author calls for educational campaign which would inform society that monuments intuitively answer their specific needs. The efforts о-f conservators one centred upon revitalization of historical towns which, as it appears is possible. However, the criticism of initiatives in this field reduced to the problem of costs according to the -principle which says that construction is less expensive than reconstruction. But on the other hand, lif we take also into account the value of the regained -environment and qualities that enable to protect men effectively from the loss of spiritual values, work on that reconstruction is cheaper than construction. What is meant here is the reconstruction in which the original character of a -building remains in agreement with the necessities of modern life. Such a historical structure ought to be provided with the possibility to fulfill a fit function when the process of transmission of historical and aesthetic values to the building takes place. Thus reconstruction reguires an appropriate evaluation of the given structure. In the following part of the article the author accuses urbanists of elimination of those historical structures which -they consider unfit to the new -needs. It is a tendency which takes into consideration neither the picture of the whole human life environment nor humanistic culture. It is exactly this culture on which our civilization is based and that is why it is likely to become an essential progress factor. Humanism, however, cannot be understood as privilege of the same -group of people -— it is a -common phenomen which aims at increase of general living standard. Now it is the very moment ti introduce order in the magnificent scientific and technological progress. This progress should help us to overcome the present chaos and to achieve new reality — harmonious and humane.