Accessibility Study of Historic Buildings and Contemporary Heritage – On the Example of Kielce’s Public Utility Buildings

Ensuring the accessibility of buildings and spaces is a common contemporary challenge, in particular for historic buildings and spaces as well as the heritage of contemporary culture. It involves all activities aimed at adapting facilities and space to the needs of people with various disabilities, including seniors. The problem of aging societies and increasing life expectancy forces extensive changes both in the approach to architectural and urban design as well as in the practice of making historic buildings accessible through architectural solutions. Particularly in existing public buildings, it becomes very important to pay attention to the specific needs and reduced psychophysical abilities of various groups of architecture recipients due to their age. For this reason, the article analyzes the accessibility of selected examples of historical objects (case studies) functioning in the structures of the modern city of Kielce – for several dozen years. In order to get acquainted with the functioning and architectural solutions of buildings, which are among the most frequented by the general public, in situ research was carried out, the multi-criteria method was used, enabling comparative analyzes and being an effective tool in making a precise assessment. The research was focused on the location of the city of Kielce, taking into account current reports and statistics indicating the largest increase in the number of people over 65 in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. It was found that it is important to revise the approach and generally accepted functional and spatial solutions regarding the accessibility of this type of facilities.