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Journal - Abstracts vol.3 nr.2 (1999)

• M. Koter and M. Kulesza - The plans of medieval Polish towns

The origins of Polish towns can be traced to the beginning of the Polish state. Most of them were founded before town charters existed, in the period between the end of the tenth century and the beginning of the thirteenth century. Most of the towns developed where there already existed a gród (the fortified seat of a local sovereign), craftsmen, and an incipient market. The first charters were granted at the beginning of the thirteenth century. By the end of the fifteenth century as many as 800 towns were chartered. In most cases, towns incorporated in their plans elements from the irregular layouts of existing settlements. Few towns were founded on previously undeveloped sites. Nevertheless, there still exist fine examples of perfectly formed regular Gothic towns.

• A. Levy - Urban morphology and the problem of the modern urban fabric: some questions for research

For most researchers in urban morphology urban form means the form of the urban fabric. Most analyses are concerned above all with historical urban fabrics. There has been insufficient exploration of modern urban tissue. With its vast territorial expansion, the modern city has undergone radical changes. There has been a shift from a closed fabric in which the links between the different elements (plot, street, constructed space, and open space) formed a system, to an open fragmented peri-urban fabric. Autonomous, atomized elements do not relate to each other any more and their scale has changed greatly. In these morphological transformations the infrastructure of transportation has played a dominant role. New tools of analysis are needed to understand the new components of the modern urban fabric and their processes of formation.

• D. Mugavin - A philosophical base for urban morphology

An exploration of philosophy related to urban morphology examines some of the `post-modern' pathways related to the rediscovery of the importance of place. The works of Foucault and Lefebvre are seen as the source of propositions that may be the essence of what urban morphology needs to focus on.