ABSTRACT
Kraków remained the leading centre of Polish architecture throughout the 20th century. The city also retained this particular role into the 21st century, after the fall of communism in Poland and the collision of the local construction market with the new needs and models coming mostly from the formerly inaccessible West. This text aims to present the history of changes that took place in Kraków’s architecture after it opened to the world, and to investigate to what degree they positively stimulated the activity of the local environment or limited its originality and capacity for creating its own design discourse. It presents new types of buildings and the phenomena that had a particular influence on the modelling and formation of the local architectural language in this period. The discussion includes the major commercial developments, such as shopping centres, mass residential construction, including single-family houses, and the public projects that were especially important and stimulating for local debate, including the buildings built for the needs of culture. Many of these buildings came after Poland’s accession to the European Union and the related influx of funds. Analysing these phenomena makes it possible to see how globalisation, and the accompanying aesthetic and technological homogenisation, have influenced the architecture of one of the most important metropolitan centres in Central Europe.
