Resumen de Landscape in change as perceived by its residents: A case study of Wilanow West in Warsaw
Katarzyna Rędzińska, Barbara Szulczewska
In the Wilanow West area, Warsaw, Poland, in the vicinity of the Royal Residence complex, which since the 17th century has determined the character and identity of the landscape, two new development projects were initiated: Wilanow Town, honoured with international awards of excellence, and the Temple of Divine Providence, constructed as national votive offering. Some experts anticipated that these new investments would result in the degradation of the landscape value. The planners, however, declared that they would take into account the fragile landscape context. Our research aims to reveal the main factors of perceived identity of this new landscape, what elements constituted its identity and whether national heritage values were present in residents’ awareness.
This problem has been shown from resident’s perspective. The survey focuses on landscape identification and perceived landscape quality issues. Our study consisted of two phases: 1) Discourse analysis, concerning the issues related to the level of interest in the topic of neighbourhood’s landscape in the local Internet community, and 2) a survey of residents’ opinions via a questionnaire based on the Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method (N179).
The Wilanow West case study revealed that the quality of physical settings in terms of the quality of planning and urban design (aesthetics, scale of buildings) was the main factor influencing the perception of the identity of landscape. The new urban fabric has dominated historical heritage in spite of protection priorities.
