The History of City Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology: Theory and Practice
Authors: Szmelter Alicja , Zdunek-Wielgolaska Justyna 
Published: September 2019

This article seeks to underline the role played in project work by the history of city development. From the outset, the teaching on this subject at the Faculty of Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology combined theory and practice together closely, as is evidenced by both the curriculum as such and the ways in which it was taught. Moreover, it is attested clearly in the CVs of those who taught the subject. This paper, therefore, presents the roles played by various different urban planners and researchers into the history of urban planning, when it comes to the evolution of teaching on planning propaedeutic and urban-planning design. From the moment it came into being in 1915, the Faculty of Architecture had thought architectural planning and planning as such, as well as urban-planning design, with this also linking up with the study of the history of architecture and the history of city planning. Only the second institution in Poland (after Lvov in 1913) to establish a Department of City Planning (hence one dealing with urban-planning design), lecturers here were both practising architects and urban planners, and researchers in the field of history. The co-founder of the Faculty of Architecture, Tadeusz Tołwiński (1887-1951) began teaching in this field with a view to its serving as a basis for further work on design in cultural circles. And in his first handbook on urban-planning design (from 1934), that author devoted his first volume to a discussion of historical cities. The second then dealt with the design of the contemporary city, while the third volume dealt with the design of urban green space. T. Tołwiński’s approach to design took account of the achievements in the new field thereof that urban planning represented, such as the zoning of cities and the development of communal transport; while also linking this up with the sensitivity of a designer seeking to create a beautiful and healthy environment for living in the city that is at the same time loaded with significance. Wacław Ostrowski (1907-1990) expanded the scope of teaching on the urban-planning history in order to include the city in the times of the Industrial Revolution, as well as the start of the 20th century. Affording broad treatment to the matter of history of city planning, he at the same time drew attention to the ecological, social and cultural dimensions of the city creation process. Teresa Zarębska (1932-2003) continued with teaching of the basics of urban-planning design as first laid out by her predecessors. In her activity, she focused on research work, the results of which gained immediate implementation in the teaching programme for the subject, officially known as the History of City Planning. However, it was further her service to expand the teaching to include matters of the protection of urban structures. She then combined her research and teaching work with activity serving the protection of heritage towns and cities. And through to the present day, a key thrust to the teaching at WAPW has been for theory to link up with practice. For ultimately, there is no way to design in European cities without having some knowledge of the way in which they developed.