The idea of building pocket parks in cities is one of the more rational proposals for utilizing cameral spaces to create new quality in terms of green areas while accounting for the potential to blend them into the compact functiospatial structure of the contemporary city. Numerous examples of pocket park projects from around the world point to there being considerable interest in this form of greenery. The goal of this paper is to present the findings of a study of a selected number of pocket parks in Krakow, Poland, in terms of their accessibility, local determinants, and the nearby functiospatial structure, as well as whether they can be included into a wider network of service and green spaces of supralocal significance. The research method included novel field research of selected pocket parks and their surroundings. The form and function of the parks were analyzed and the type of their surrounding urban structure was determined, along with the parks’ accessibility. The study investigated nine parks located in the northeastern part of Krakow in a dense development structure dominated by multi-family housing. Analyses of the parks themselves and the research on the relations and linkages between parks and their surrounding urban structure generally pointed to the accuracy of the concept of the pocket park, its universality, and its compliance with the concept of the sustainable development of urban space. The presence and manner of development of pocket parks can be said to enhance the quality of spaces in confined fragments of an urban structure and to have predominantly local significance.

There are numerous areas in Europe that were developing and functioning based on traditional industries, such as coal mining. These include among others: The Ruhr and Saar Coal Basins in Germany, Upper Silesia in Poland, Limburg in Holland or Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France. The spaces of industrial regions and cities, including those related to coal mining, have undergone a fundamental metamorphosis following the economic transformation which – in western Europe – started in the second half of the last century. A vast majority of collieries have been shut down and joined the group of former industrial facilities of great adaptation potential, commonly referred to as brownfields. The article contains a concise analysis of the condition of former mining facilities in two countries in Western Europe – Belgium and France, as well as a synthetic evaluation of the significance of these facilities for contemporary urban spaces. The discussion has been based on the Author's field research carried out in August 2017, focused on now defunct collieries that have been adapted to serve new public utility functions. The primary objective of the research was to diagnose the following problems related to the development of former mining facilities and grounds, with special focus on the complexes of shaft headframes and their accompanying dumps: a. the contemporary practical significance of adapted collieries; b. spatial and compositional role of former mining facilities; c. how the surviving collieries affect preservation of the identity of cities and regions historically related to coal mining. The above problems have been discussed on the basis of and illustrated with the examples of former Belgian collieries: "C-Mine" in Genk and "Bois du Cazier" in Marcinelle, as well as two collieries in France, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region: "Delloye" in Lewarde and "Dourges" in Oignies. The conclusions stemming from the conducted research and the article itself may prove useful in evaluation of the results of actions undertaken in relation to the shutdown collieries. They may also provide a good starting point for similar research in other mining regions in Europe, particularly in the areas where the process of the mining industry transformation is still in progress or has only just begun.

This paper presents the findings of a study on the impact of the transformation of a road transport corridor on the form of a functio-spatial structure, as determined by the placement of significant economic activity sites within this corridor. The investigation of relations and interdependencies in the development of the road transport system and development structure transformation processes allowed for the identification of tendencies in the shaping of space, as well as for building models that reflect the transformation of the road corridor under study. The study focused on a fragment of the road transport corridor between Kraków and Bochnia (called the “Kraków East–Bochnia” corridor), as a distinctive case of contemporary transformations of the functio-spatial structure that happen under the influence of the construction and opening of a section of highway A4. The study was based on original field work, a review of the literature and an analysis of applicable planning documents. GIS tools, cartographic resources and satellite images were also used. The transformation of the area under investigation and the increase in its accessibility due to the presence of the highway pointed to the area’s high attractiveness in terms of real estate development—especially at nodal sites along the linkages that connected the highway with other elements of the road corridor. The relationships between the completed highway section and the previous road layout are crucial to the emergence of economic activity sites and areas, and thus lead to a transformation of developed space following a new spatial model.

Poland’s economic transformation has proved to be a critical phase in the contemporary development of its industrial cities, initiating profound spatial and functional changes. In researching the basics of the development of ‘post-industrial’ cities, it can be seen that the work undertaken is focused on reusing post-industrial buildings and objects. This results not only in functional changes in the appearance and condition of the transformed structures, but also preserves or destroys their authenticity and historical identity. This problem is linked with several phenomena, including ‘aware inactivity’, ‘destructive adaptation’, and ‘false revitalization’.