engleski

Transformation potential of public spaces in Osijek’s fortification

Tvrdja fortess, urban core of the city of Osijek, Eastern Croatia, was built at the beginning of 18th century following military planners’ blueprints. Public spaces within the fortification walls originally concentrated around three squares, each containing a separate function – main square, church square and army drill square. Through the centuries, Tvrdja’s urban texture remained almost intact, while its contents and significance in Osijek’s development transformed into an illegible spatial image. The research presented in this article documents the chronological, functional and morphological evolution of public squares in Tvrdja with the aim to detect their revival potential. The authors set out to review Tvrdja’s public spaces as one entity and to apply elements of vibrant, ‘successful’ places like the main square on spaces that were less visible, less frequented and misused. Three main criteria of comparison between the three squares were elements of physical structure, level of activity and revival potential, each specified by a set of different indicators. Indicators were defined according to latest references in the field of urban form research, modified following Tvrdja’s inhabitants preferences (survey, interviews). Preliminary results indicate that a certain amount of spatial flexibility is a major advantage in a developmental cycle of encapsulated urban entities like the Tvrdja fortress.

fortification ; public spaces ; urban image ; vitality

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