The processes of differentiation and segregation in the urbanized space of the Upper Silesian Industrial Region

Abstract

Towns of the Upper Silesian Industrial Region were created in the way typical for the 19th-century urbanization out of the initially scattered adjoining to to factories settlements. This is how the space of Katowice, the present capital of the Region, was formed; similarly Siemianowice, Ruda Śląska or Bytom were shaped. Built according to the typical design (French, Prussian, Scottish) the workers’ settlements took most often the form of the so-called familoks quarters of two- or three-storey buildings, with small, one- or two-room flats, of a very low from the present point of view, standard (without central heating, gas, sanitary arrangements). This kind of buildings make up till now over 40% of the building of many towns of the Katowice agglomeration. We will come back to the problems of old building later on, in the meantime let’s try in a few words to describe the life conditions of the inhabitants of this Region. Expressing the matter in the shortest way — they are dramatic. [fragm. tekstu]