Concepts of Transformations of Cities – Examples from the Silesian Agglomeration

The problem of functional, compositional, and structural transformations, necessary to be introduced in contemporary inner cities, is complex and multithreaded. Sometimes cities get compared to palimpsests – re-used parchments from which old texts were removed in order to replace them with new ones. Undoubtedly, they are very particular palimpsests, as it is very difficult to clearly assess what should be protected and preserved, and what can be replaced or reconstructed. This paper discusses problems and concepts of transformations of selected city centres of the Silesian agglomeration, paying special attention to big comprehensive reconstructions of Katowice and Gliwice.