Planned and unplanned urban transformations of city center (based on the example of Vilnius city)

Abstract

Urban development is affected by various types of factors: political, economic, social, cultural, etc. During the past three decades, in the Eastern European towns the conflict between uncontrolled suburbanisation and the traditional concept of the classical or harmonious town development has become prominent. A vision of development is missing in those towns and the quality of the urban process is deteriorating: the full-fledged urban planning genre is vanishing and the liberal tolerance, in a broad sense, of unregulated development is becoming more established. The latter may be considered to be unplanned urban development, but it radically contradicts the principals of the planned urban development established in the urban development process in the second half of the 20th century. One thing is clear – the physical shape of a town is often the result of interaction between both planned and unplanned urban developments. The recent decades of the 20th and the 21st centuries are particularly strongly characterised by a very intensive alternation of these factors in towns, which in the end, of course, impacts and alters the town itself. The presentation is based on a study of transformations in Vilnius’ centre. The development of Vilnius city centre may be divided into several stages: natural development until the beginning of the 19th century, long-term urban development plans of the 19th century, development proposals as well as planned and unplanned development of the territory that has taken place in the 20-21st centuries. During the natural development stage, the city’s urban texture developed adapting to the natural conditions – the main streets, their built-up and cultural, confessional, administrative urban complexes were set up. In summary, the analysis of the long-term urban development plans drawn up for Vilnius in the 19th century leads to a conclusion that those plans did not cause big changes of the key urban-structure features of the central territory that existed at that time but rather complemented them by adding new elements featuring the urban planning tradition of classicism. For instance, a new avenue emphasising the axial composition was built and became a new central street. A rectangular network of streets and blocks was developed as well. In the second half of the 20th century, radical urban transformations took place in the centre of Vilnius – the administrative-commercial centre was moved to the other side of the river Neris. The most intensive constructions of the 21st century are now taking place in that central territory. The aim of the concrete scientific research discussed in this presentation is to use professional tools of the urban planning and design genre to manage a potential impact of both planned and unplanned urban developments, caused by the globalisation era, on the central part of Lithuania’s capital city.