Sociopetal space in the context of the demands of the Athens Charter

The Athens Charter was published by CIAM in 1943 and it has constituted one of the most important guidelines for architects for many years. Although it was published eighty years ago, it still remains as one of the most important source for the building regulations in some Eastern European countries, including Poland. On the other hand, its demands have been criticized many times for creating spaces in which the mental condition of residents is not taken care of. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified society's contemporary mental problems related to loneliness and social belonging. One way to counteract these problems is to create sociopetal spaces that encourage people to interact and gather together. The aim of this article is to identify the most important postulates of the Athens Charter and the features of sociopetal spaces, compare them and demonstrate the contradictions between them. In addition, a practical use of the sociopetal architecture's postulates was demonstrated via the example of Plac Wolności in Łódź. The authors used the analytical and interpretive and comparative analysis methods. The area of the research is design theory. The scope of the research concerns the urban and architectural scale.