The subject of the article concerns vertical urban farms that play an important role in nature-based solutions and ecosystem services for the city. In the face of a changing climate, progressive environmental degradation, and the related loss of agricultural land, vertical farms can be seen as an alternative to traditional agriculture. Woven into the blue-green infrastructure of cities, they may not only constitute a base for food production, but can also create a new valuable ecological, social, and economic hub in contemporary cities, changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this paper is to show whether it is possible to introduce various functions which support ecosystem and social services, and whether they affect measurable benefits for urban residents in a large-scale system of solutions in the field of vertical urban agriculture. This research shows that urban vertical farms can perform many functions and bring diverse benefits to the inhabitants of cities. In a multi-scale system, they allow for the creation of patchwork connections, which stabilise a specific city biome in the vertical space.

The system of construction design completion most frequently used in Poland is the traditional one. In this system, the client describes the subject of the order by means of design documentation and technical specifications of construction and commissioning of building works. The article analyses the most frequent errors that appear in design documentation, discusses the reasons for their occurrence and specifies their possible consequences

Public contracting authority may award contracts only to contractors who meet certain qualification criteria for participation in tenders. Such requirements can vary between countries; this paper therefore introduces basic legislation governing this process both in the Czech Republic and Poland. The verification of compliance of these requirements should be made individually for each public procurement procedure which is associated with the need to submit corresponding documents. The aim of the article is to analyse and compare current practice in using qualification criteria for public works contracts in both countries. Information about qualification criteria have been studied on the sample of 345 tenders for public works contracts, in particular for road structures, schools and water and sewage facilities and equipment. Analytical part focuses on the extent of qualification criteria use and discusses their application in the context of ensuring fairness of the competition with regard to non-discriminatory nature of the qualification. Research findings reveal significant disparity between the Czech Republic and Poland in the area of 1) professional and 2) economic and financial qualifications. It has been concluded that the reintroduction of economic and financial qualification criteria in the Czech Republic is justified if used appropriately and according to methodological guidelines. In Poland, the risk of inappropriate use of criteria lies especially in excessive requirements in relation to the volume and nature of contract. Contracting entity is not obliged to describe and demand all the requirements, it is crucial to require just the fulfilment of those criteria which are necessary to assess the ability of contractors to perform the contract. The criteria of an environmental nature are hardly used.

The subject of this article is a presentation of multi-scale passive and active solar and shading systems in urban areas. This research assumes the hypothesis that insolation systems are interdependent and that their integration in urbanized space affects the city biome. Attention has been paid to the role of innovative solutions used in the field of ur ban insolation, such as heliostats in the development of future eco-architecture and eco-urban planning. This research has been based on the assumption that only by taking into account the close symbiosis between an energy-efficient building and its appropriate insolation, in combination with properly planned surroundings, it is possible to actually achieve the principles of sustainable development in the urban fabric. The analytical part concerns detailed investigation into solutions in the field of passive and active solar architecture and urban planning, regarding both insolation and shading. The article analyzes source materials, includes descriptions of case studies, and presents a comparative analysis of passive and active solar and shading systems. The research method, both empirically and theoretically, is closely related to case study analysis and has involved collecting and systematizing data on micro and macro “solar” design systems.

E3S Web of Conferences, open access proceedings in environment, energy and earth sciences