Adaptive Reuse of Architectural Heritage and Its Role in the Post-Disaster Reconstruction of Urban Identity: Post-Communist Łódź

The article examines the role of the adaptive reuse of architectural heritage in urban identity reconstruction and strengthening undertaken after the disaster caused by a strong economic and social crisis. The main research material includes activities and projects implemented in post-communist Łódź, one of the largest Polish cities. The city developed extremely dynamically at the beginning of the 19th century as a centre of textile industry. Characteristic factories located in the city centre operated continuously until the end of the 1980s, when the transformation brought about radical political changes, as a result of which Łódź experienced a rapid process of deindustrialisation. The nineteenth-century architectural heritage played an important role in the search for ways to regenerate the city and redefine its identity. Starting from the local, i.e., historical, social or identity contexts, the reader is led to universal conclusions, concerning important problems, issues and challenges related to the confrontation of architectural heritage with contemporary needs and expectations.