Transformations of historic spaces in European cities have always been subject to certain principles and rules – different in different eras – regulating their structures. The results of expanding and transforming urban settlements in Poland show that, particularly in the last dozen or so years, a clearly discernible principle would be difficult to find in the image of Polish cities. Absence of a universally accepted urban planning doctrine is probably one of the reasons that there is no harmony, beauty or composition in currently created large cities in Poland. The problems have been discussed on the example of one of the major and most beautiful cities in Poland – Kraków. Its spatial structure is the result of many centuries’ work, and it encompasses both historic urban schemes preserved in full and fragments of urban and rural settlements starting from the early Middle Ages. A rapid growth of the city area has been going on in several stages since the mid-20ᵗʰ century. Dynamic expansion, affected by several stylistic trends valid in the late 20ᵗʰ and early 21ˢᵗ century, such as socialist realism, modernism and postmodernism, has totally changed the spatial form of the city. The city population has trebled during that time, and its area has grown almost seven times. The efforts aimed at rebuilding, expansion, modernisation and ordering the city that were undertaken after the political regime change in 1989 and following the changes in the Act on Spatial Development introduced in 1994 and 2003 and in the building code – in 1994, have failed to meet the city residents’ expectations. Poland’s accession into the European Union in 2004 brought on a certain acceleration in the process of modernisation, rebuilding and transformation of the city. It has been – and still is – provoking a succession of environmental, social and, first of all, spatial conflicts. The most serious problem is the air pollution in the city, resulting both from dust and chemical emissions, the limits of which are exceeded for seven months a year. Additional inconveniences of the urban life in Kraków are related to the fact that there are approximately 300,000 commuters coming to the city on a daily basis, who use up a considerable portion of the scarce municipal services. The contemporary growth of development in Kraków and its surroundings – at the time when sustainable growth and spatial order make a universally accepted paradigm – must be considered an unfulfilled promise. It seems that basing city growth in Poland on the self-regulating free market forces has been a mistake. The introduced legal and planning regulations were excessively liberal. This, combined with the fact that only a small percentage of urban areas have valid land use plans, makes the system defective and insufficient. Moreover, the frequently introduced changes and modifications of the system only further expose its inefficiency. The dominant position of investors, rather than urban planners, in creation of urban spaces, both in housing and services, does not promote harmonious growth or high quality public spaces.
