Reflective practice as a basis for building a sustainable public space: the case of Kartuzy

Abstract

Recent decades have been characterized by dynamic changes in the urban design process in post-transition countries such as Poland. Numerous activities have focused on upgrading the urban environment. The transformation that drives change also requires some new skills, which are described in the theory of reflective practice: observation, experience, and reflection. The goal of this paper is to build a descriptive scheme of the urban design process based on the reflective practice approach. The case of Kartuzy was chosen as the authors of this paper actively participated in this town’s 10-year redevelopment process, which can be seen as an experimental approach. The experience gathered allowed them to generate results on the issue of reflective practice, both in the sphere of practical skills and the theoretical results of research. One of the main conclusions is that knowledge exchange, observing the influence of actions of participants, and experiencing various types of interactions in the process of spatial development all drive reflection, which is a crucial element for taking another step in improving the quality of the urban design process. This paper contributes to a discussion on using reflective practice in the context of the development of public spaces towards making them more sustainable.