This Thursday, 28.04.2022 at 2 pm we invite you to the first of three meetings at three universities under the common slogan Public space. There is a place for your voice.

Fahrenheit Universities invite you to a series of discussions on the role and importance of publicly accessible places in various aspects. Lectures by experts from GUMed, PG and UG are organised jointly with the Self-government of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, as part of a strategic undertaking called the Pomeranian Public Space Laboratory. The meetings with the participation of professors: Magdalena Błażek, Mariusz Czepczyński, Piotr Lorens, Maciej Nyka and Lidia Wolska will be hosted by Jakub Pietruszewski, geographer and urban planner, director of the Pomeranian Regional Planning Office.

The meetings will be held in a hybrid formula, at the university and via social media. A broadcast of each lecture will be available on the Union's YouTube channel and FarU's Facebook.

Meetings schedule

University of Gdańsk

• 28.04.2022, 14:00 Theater room in the building of Neophilology UG

The lecture Public space as a common good will be delivered by dr hab. Mariusz Czepczyński, prof. UG - cultural geographer, lecturer at the Department of Spatial Economy of the Institute of Geography, University of Gdańsk and at the Tor Vergata University in Rome.

Medical University of Gdańsk

• 26.05.2022, 14:00 hall named after prof. Olgierd Narkiewicz in the building Atheneum Gedanense Novum GUMed

The lecture Health and quality of life in public space will be delivered by: prof. dr hab. Lidia Wolska - analytical chemist, head of the Department of Environmental Toxicology GUMed, dr hab. Magdalena Błażek - head of the Department of Quality of Life Research GUMed, acting head of the Department of Psychology GUMed, and dr hab. Maciej Nyka, prof. GUMed, prof. UG - professor at the Department of Environmental Toxicology GUMed and the Department of Public and Environmental Law UG.

Gdańsk University of Technology 

• 23.06.2022 r. at 14:00 Main Building, courtyard named after Daniel Fahrenheit PG 

Urban aspects of shaping public space lecture by prof. dr hab. inż. arch. Piotr Lorens - Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Architecture of the PG, Architect of the City of Gdańsk.

SPEAKERS

dr hab. Magdalena Błażek - psychologist, head of the Psychology Department, Quality of Life Research Unit at the Medical University of Gdańsk, acting head of the Psychology Department at the Medical University of Lublin. A practitioner with many years of experience and a legal expert. For 25 years, she has been associated with the Family Diagnostic and Consultation Centre in Gdańsk, and in the years 2005-2016, she managed the centre. For many years, she has been conducting training and workshops for various professional groups on proper communication and conflict resolution. Her main areas of interest are personality psychology, forensic-psychological opinion-making and personality diagnosis. In her scientific work, she focuses on deepening her knowledge of the dynamics of interpersonal relations, including the functioning of family systems in crisis and the development of diagnostic practice, designing new, original diagnostic methods and developing guidelines for further clinical work of psychologists providing opinions in court cases. She participated in the work of a substantive team, which developed standards of opinion in family and guardianship cases.

dr hab. Mariusz Czepczyński, prof. UG - cultural geographer, lecturer at the Department of Spatial Management of the Institute of Geography, University of Gdańsk and at the Tor Vergata University in Rome. His research interests focus on cultural landscapes, transformations of post-socialist cities, cultural heritage, public spaces, as well as the semiotics of space, place-making processes, management and metropolisation of space. Author of Cultural Landscape of Post-Socialist Cities. Representation of Powers and Needs (Ashgate: 2008), co-editor of Public Space. Between Reimagination and Occupation (Routledge 2018), co-author and editor of 8 books and some 80 other academic publications. Recent publications in progress are Re-Semiotisation of urban landscapes. Relational geographies and signification processes in post-socialist cities (Edward Elgar 2022) and Liminal landscapes of post-socialist Central Eurasia. Powers, narratives and critical spatial linguistics (Routledge 2022). He was a visiting professor at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (2009-2011), board member of the COST ACTION research network Investigating Cultural Sustainability (2011-2015), member of the State Council for Nature Conservation under the Minister of the Environment (2014-2016), member of the Advisory Board of the urbanHIST | 20th Century European Urbanism project (2017-2020), coordinator of the 'Energy Transition' partnership within the Urban Agenda for the European Union (2017-2021), expert-advisor of the PACTESUR - Protecting Allied Cities against Terrorism by Securing Urban aReas project (2018-2022).

prof. dr hab. inż. arch. Piotr Lorens - Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Gdańsk University of Technology, since 2021 architect of the City of Gdańsk. Fulbright scholar, actively involved in the work of scientific committees (e.g. within the structures of the Polish Academy of Sciences) and professional associations (e.g. ISOCARP, TUP, ICOMOS and TICCIH). He also works on the planning and implementation of various urban development projects and undertakings, primarily related to urban transformation and regeneration.

dr hab. Maciej Nyka, prof. GUMed, prof. UG - professor in the Department of Environmental Toxicology of the Medical University of Gdańsk and the Department of Public Economic Law and Environmental Protection of the University of Gdańsk. Deputy chairman of the Space Research Commission, PAS, Gdańsk Branch. Author and co-author of numerous books and scientific articles published in leading publishing houses and magazines in Poland and abroad, among others Climate value and climate of values (2021); State responsibility for climate change damages (2021) Legal and economic instruments of response to the climate change emergency (co-author 2021); International Seabed Authority and environmental deep-sea stewardship. Principles governing the protection and use of sea-bed resources (2020) Legal approaches to the problem of pollution of the marine environment with plastic (2019) Instruments for reducing the environmental impact of trade. A study in international law (2018). His primary area of research interest is the problems remaining at the interface between economic law and environmental law, both in the national, EU and international dimensions. His current research focuses on the legal aspects of climate protection and the legal challenges of protecting the marine environment.

prof. dr hab. Lidia Wolska - analytical chemist, head of the Department of Environmental Toxicology at the Medical University of Gdańsk, a long-term scientific and didactic employee of the Faculty of Chemistry of PG. Author of many methodical and apparatus solutions in the field of environmental analytics, where she initiated research on the impact of environmental factors on human health. Originator and creator of a unique course of study Environmental Health (I and II degree). In 2012-2013, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Medical University of Gdańsk. Her scientific interests focus on the search for environmental factors that determine health problems in humans, issues of environmental and health risk assessment, as well as the quality of life categories. Author or co-author of over 260 original and review articles, co-author of 4 patents. Chairperson of II Division of the Gdańsk Scientific Society and vice-chairperson of the Polish Society of Toxicology, Gdańsk Branch, member of the Committee of Analytical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences.

MODERATOR

Jakub Pietruszewski - geographer and town-planner; professionally connected with the Self-government of Pomorskie Voivodeship. Director of the Pomeranian Regional Planning Office since 2016. General designer of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Spatial Development Plan 2030 and the Spatial Development Plan of the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area 2030. Member of the Society of Polish Town Planners branch in Gdańsk since 2005, and member of the Northern Regional Chamber of Town Planners until 2014 (until the Chamber was dissolved). Member of the Main Urban Planning and Architectural Commission in 2014-2016, Urban Planning and Architectural Commission of Gdynia for 2020-2022 and 2022-2024. Author of articles on spatial planning, strategic management and development of metropolitan regions.

LECTURES ABSTRACTS

Public space as a common good

Public space is "that part of the environment that is associated with public meanings and functions" (Madanipour 2003: 4), it is formed by human interaction and cooperation, making it possible to live with other people (Thuma 2011). Such a space becomes a fundamental part of the public sphere (public realm), which "denotes a dissent and participatory space within which legal actors, citizens, economic actors, and family and community members form public bodies and engage in the negotiation and contestation of political and social life" (Somers 1993: 589). This particular form of socio-urban space arises when a piece of actual physical space is dominated by relationships between strangers (Lofland 1998).

Public space can be described as a dialogic space, created by the continuous interaction between forms, functions, meanings and their audiences. It remains not only 'plastically visible' in space, but also 'narratively visible' in time (Bakhin after Folch-Serrra 1990). Public space is a particular kind of symbol, a part of the culture at the same time and probably its most visible transmitter, expressing hierarchies of values, ways of thinking and experiences of the dominant social group. Spaces represent social and cultural relations in a given place and time: significant values, meanings and symbols; they reflect the aspirations of the authorities, as well as glorious and tragic history, and also possibilities, dreams, limitations and fears, as well as the level of aesthetic education, education or broadly understood cultural horizons and patterns recorded in the system of symbols and signs (Czepczyński 2008).

Health and quality of life in public space

Public space is filled/created by elements of material nature (physical, chemical, biological), but also those of a non-material nature (spiritual). Man, together with the living world (animals, plants, microorganisms), is suspended in this space, subject to an exchange of matter, energy and information. Our health depends on the quality of the environment in which we live. On the other hand, our health and emotions influence the environment, which we shape in a way that is conditioned by this health. The WHO Constitution holistically defines health, stating that it is a state of physical, mental and social well-being. The sense of health is considered a basic determinant of quality of life.

For centuries, a person's interior has been shaped by the external environment. Changes resulting largely from civilisation processes, including urbanisation, disturb the exchange of matter, energy and information with our interior. When the intensity of disturbing factors exceeds the organism's ability to maintain the state of internal homeostasis, illness occurs and we lose our sense of well-being. Knowledge of the impact of physical, chemical and biological factors, their level of intensity and the effects of their interaction on the human body is a prerequisite for the creation of healthy living environments and their proper management through health and environmental risk assessment. Acceptance of a certain level of risk shapes the quality parameters of air, water, soil and food.

The establishment and enforcement of environmental quality standards, as well as the issuance of administrative decisions, relating to the human environment must take into account the principles of environmental protection with particular emphasis on the constitutional principle of sustainable development.

Urbanistic aspects of shaping public space

The shaping of contemporary public space - irrespective of its social significance - is also (or maybe first of all) an activity of urbanistic dimension. It is related to, among other things, the shaping of comprehensive urban structures, of which it is an integral element, and is of key importance for the proper functioning of building complexes of various characters. This space may have both a commercial and a recreational or symbolic dimension, and its architectural expression may refer to various patterns. The lecture will present the main issues related to urban aspects of shaping public spaces in cities, both in the design and implementation dimensions.