The birth of Tricity (1945–1949). Concepts and creators of the first GD conurbation plan

Abstract

The decision to rebuild the country after its wartime destruction and the necessity to integrate Poland’s altered territory brought about the need for new rules on the spatial design of the country. Besides the necessity for a country-wide plan, key planning tasks were indicated, which needed to be completed first. The framework for rebuilding and developing the annihilated capital was to be drawn up by the Bureau for the Rebuilding of the Capital (Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy, BOS). Each voivodeship had an equivalent of the BOS – the Regional Managing Board of Spatial Planning (Regionalna Dyrekcja Planowania Przestrzennego, RDPP). First, plans for the port-city complexes were to be put in motion. The sum total of these tasks became a tremendous challenge for the few Polish urban planners who survived the war. The eminent Warsaw urban planner Stanisław Różański was sent to the RDPP on the Coast and served as its director from 1945 until 1948. Różański formulated the idea of the unity of the Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia conurbation. This unity was understood in various ways. Architect and urban planner Władysław Czerny, the deputy mayor of Gdansk at the time, and the creator of the concept of rebuilding the Main City of Gdansk in a historic formula, wanted to pursue the idea of “Greater Gdansk”, which would absorb, within its administrative borders, all the neighbouring cities and towns, including Gdynia. Minister of Reconstruction Michał Kaczorowski stopped these efforts and nominated Kamil Lisowski to serve as director of the GD Plan Bureau within the RDPP and the general designer of Tricity.