Nodes of urbanity and spatial models of city structures. From the notes on the synergy in the inner city urbanistic constructions

The paper is concerned with the role of nodal places in the models of urbanistic constructions used in spatial planning to interpret the structure of the city. The leading subject of this book: the question of synergy in the theory of urbanism, is discussed here as the problem of structural disintegration of urban space and formulated as the weaknesses of urban construction of the city. The focus is on modelling the spatial structure of the inner cities constituting the cores of metropolitan areas in Poland. Short introduction into the question of synergy in urbanism and a brief review of the spatial models of the city structure in contemporary urbanism is followed by the presentation of the models of urban structures used in the spatial development plans and the preliminary land use plans for the city of Krakow. On this background a new planning model is presented. This interpretation of urban construction was developed recently by the team from the Cracow University of Technology as a result of the research and study project commissioned by the Town Hall of Krakow. The
model is based on the assumptions that the structural land use model of the city could be useful an instrument in analytical and conceptual procedures of urban planning. This refers mostly to the transportation corridors named here as “strategic connectors” linking major nodal places which are playing the function of mobility nodes. In this model the crucial role is played by the places called by the author as “the nodes of urbanity”. The identifi cation of these elements and their typology as well as the assessment of its development potentials belong to the research procedures of this model. Following the principle of synergy, in urban strategies strategic urban development projects should be clustered along these corridors. It is also assumed that the approach adopted in this model could be also useful in the comparative research on the structural changes in the inner cities constituting the cores of metropolitan areas in Poland.