Conversions and Redefinitions – Architecture and Identity of a Place
Conversions and Redefinitions – Architecture and Identity of a Place

Summary/Abstract: Architecture substantially strengthens and supports the identity of a city and its citizens. Buildings are the most easily and commonly available testimony to culture. The political transformation which took place in Poland in 1989, causing a shift in the sociocultural order, contributed to an important transformation of the urban areas. New contexts and discourses are being created not only by new edifices, but also by old architecture which is being converted and redefined. Historical buildings are adapted to the changing times, balancing between the past and the present. A new semantic code is forming: old contents are being replaced with new ones, compounding the meanings originally and secondarily given to architecture. Old identities are being questioned and new ones are appearing, which is accompanied by substantial overlapping and hybridisation.

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