Osiedla domów jednorodzinnych Lublina z okresu PRL. Koncepcje, realizacja, eksploatacja
Authors: Dmitruk Michał 
Published: February 2025

The subject of research presented in this monograph studies the urbanistic and architectural evolution of single family housing estates in Lublin, whose main development took place
during the second half of the 20th century. The study presents the historical, legal, political, and
socio-economic conditions for the germination of these settlements. This document looks to
answer the question: Whether the above factors played a significant role in the urban layout
of these estates, along with their architectural form and their subsequent function in the city
structure until this day.
The territorial range of this study covers the general area of the city of Lublin. A set of case
studies was conducted across a group of emblematic single family housing estates. 13 such
estates were analyzed from a formal and planning point of view (11 constructed during the
communist period, 1 pre-war, and 1 contemporary development acting as a comparative
example).
This monograph is concerned with the period of the People’s Republic of Poland (1952 to
1989). However, the material studied is influenced by the city’s development prior to World
War II and has ramifications to the contemporary function of the city.
The paper looks to collect and synthesize data concerning the urban form and architectural
implementation of the studied housing estates, as well as to recognize the changes, which
231
influence living conditions and their urban function. Additionally the collected analysis is used
to inform a set a of guidelines to strategize the modernization of these estates.
The structure of the work consists of 6 chapters: The first chapter operates as the introduction to the work and justifies the choice of the topic, defines its scope, sets the objectives
and establishes the hypotheses. This presents the methodology of the research and contains
a review of previous research related to the topic. The second chapter provides the theoretical
background for the studied settlements. It describes the political and economic realities, urban
planning norms, as well as issues related to standardizations leading to cookie cutter architecture
and the decline of novel design work which instead became rooted in ideology and propaganda.
The third chapter presents a historical sketch of housing in Lublin, their communist era urban
development plans, as well as their influence on the single-family housing in the city. The fourth
chapter contains a detailed description of each of the surveyed housing estates. It lists their
basic data, historical conditions, spatial context, urban assumptions, architectural solutions,
and their transformation over time. In the fifth chapter, the settlements are analyzed on a set
of urban characteristics. Twenty-six specific features comparing basic urban parameters were
laid out, including public transport networks, service and retail facilities, public spaces etc.
A comparative analysis was made, ranking these settlements from best to worst. The sixth
chapter is a summary of the research conducted in the previous chapters as well as conclusions
drawn from them. The chapter attempts to assess the function of the surveyed housing estates
within the present-day layout of Lublin. The degree of transformation as well as the influence
on homogeneous design solutions were assessed. Desired and undesired transformations were
distilled, conclusions and guidelines for future activities, both theoretical and practical were
formulated. The initial aims of this study were fulfilled, and the hypothesis assumption has been
confirmed