Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Subject: Geography HL
Option G: Urban Environments
Fieldwork Question:
The city function changes on the example of Wola – a district of Warsaw.
Contents Page:
1. Contents Page ……………………………………………………… 2
2. Introduction ………………………………………………………… 3
3. Methods ……………………………………………………………. 8
4. Analysis ……………………………………………………………. 9
5. Conclusion ……………….……………………………………….... 15
6. Evaluation ………………………………………………………….. 15
7. Appenix …………………………………………………………….. 16
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Candidate’s session number: 001531-035
Aim: The aim of this investigation was to assess the present city functions of Wola in
comparison to the past. I have used collected data from which I could analyze and come to a
conclusion whether Wola’s function trend has changed or not.
History of Wola :
Before coming to the analysis of the investigation itself, I will briefly review Wola’s history
and the functions in the past.
The first mansion of Wola appeared in 1575. It was a village located on the outskirts of
Warsaw. Old routes crossed here leading from the Old Town in the direction of Sochaczew,
Poznan, Berlin and Dresden.
Countryside, Wola - originally owned by the prince, then the king - gradually passes into the
hands of nobles and burghers, who built their mansions here. Wola slowly changed, becoming
more and more a village, a hamlet, and in the end, the suburb of Warsaw. Developing
production - produced brick, breweries, distilleries, mills. It was clean. In the nineteenth
century, it became a popular place, almost like Bielany, where there were national celebrations
and trips around the town.
The biggest economic boom in Wola was in the end of the nineteenth century. It is because of
the opening of the first railway line from Warsaw to Vienna. The development of the railways
meant that Wola has become the main freight station of Warsaw: Railway freight station of the
Warsaw-Vilnius and the loading station. At the end of the nineteenth century along the tracks
more than a dozen points of loading and factories started, which had their own railway sidings.
The number of population rose from 9,000 in 1890 to 40,000 in 1915. A part from factory
owners, craftsmen and merchants, most of the population were workers employed in Wola.
During World War II, Wola suffered huge losses: in Warsaw Ghetto Jews were murdered
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Candidate’s session number: 001531-035
during the Warsaw Uprising in Wola district where more than 50,000 people were killed.
Much of the district buildings, and streets located in the ghetto were destroyed.
Hypothesis : Assessing the past history of Wola and its present apparent, we can say that it has
changed its primary industrial function to business services function.
Maps :
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Figure 2 : Intensity Index of Wola ( SERVICES) (this map was drawn by me)
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Figure 3 : Intensity Index of Wola ( RESIDENTIAL) (this map was drawn by me)
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We used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. For quantitative
methods, we carried out observations and measurements. For qualitative methods, we took
photos and draw maps.
The II was drawn by assessing the function of the buildings. Then we divided the buildings
into three groups: residential function, service function and industrial function. The index was
determined by counting the number of each functional buildings. Residential buildings
included living blocks and houses, service buildings involved any kinds of shops,
supermarkets, schools, restaurants and any other kind of services like post office, and industrial
buildings included unfinished constructions, offices, etc. The aim of this index was to conclude
whether Wola district has changed its functions over time.
The photos include the ones taken by our group as well as photos downloaded from some
useful websites.
The investigation was conducted on a common sunny day, so the weather did not have much
influence on our results.
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Candidate’s session number: 001531-035
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Moving on to the second map, we can analyze the distribution of service buildings within the
investigated area. As shown on the map, the darker the pink color, the more intensively the
service buildings are located. Unsurprisingly, the
most service-intensive areas are located around the
same places as the most decayed areas, that is along
the street Aleja Prymusa Tysiąclecia, the streets
Okopowa, Leszna, Towarowa and a very small part
on Aleja Jana Pawła II, where the two exclusive
hotels Hilton and Westin, the Intercontinetal
Warsaw, and the biggest shopping mall of Warsaw –
Złote Tarasy are placed. It can be evaluated that the
reason why these areas are more quickly destroyed
than the others is because of this great intensity of
services, which brings more human interactions,
more business and economic activities happening,
more social entertainment and attractions, like the
shopping mall, where millions of people visit
everyday. It can be noticed that there are many new
and very clean service buildings while there are very
few old service buildings. For example, as we look at
the photo below (taken by our group), we can see a
very new and modern building of the BPH Bank. It is
surrounded by fresh green plants, and a car parking which is kept very clean, without any
overgrowing plants. Although the DI of this area is quite high (15-16), but considering only the
bank, we can notice extremely few junks, trashes, overgrowing plants, even no graffiti on
walls, etc., which indicates big changes towards cleaner environment along with great changes
to modern services.
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Candidate’s session number: 001531-035
Illustration 4
Illustration 5
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Candidate’s session number: 001531-035
And the biggest proportion of buildings in Wola is represented by residential buildings, which
comprises most of this area. We can see that the
darkest green (which stands for 81-100% of
residential buildings) comprises about a half of the
map. There are some areas colored with the light
green, which means that there are few residential
buildings (1-20%). This does not make any great
influence because, still, most of the area consist of
40% or more of residential functions. However,
what we can easily recognize from this map is that
the residential is least intensive in the same places
where the service and decay index is most
intensive. The most probable reason for this is that
high intensity index for services brings high level
of noise and decay, which makes citizens unwilling
to resident in those regions. The upper part of the
map where the intensity index of service is highest
generally seems to have very low decay index. This
indicates that people tend to choose peaceful and
clean places to live rather than convenient with full
range of services. Also, this shows how the
residential function has changed from the past, as significantly less people were living in the
area with much lower intensity index. We took some photos of residential buildings, those
recently built as well as those remained from the past:
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Finally, we also investigated the industrial functioning of Wola and we recognized that
industrial functions of the area has gradually decreased as many industrial buildings have been
left, are going to be reconstructed or have already been destroyed. Let us look at the beneath
photos:
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Candidate’s session number: 001531-035
Generally looking at the industrial functioning of the Wola district, it can be recognized
that industry is not an advantage of the area. A lot of industrial factories have encountered
bankrupts or some other kinds of losses, therefore, they could not sustain industries in this area.
However, service is a very strong advantage of the area due to the fact that Wola is located
around the centre of the city, so the service interactions, business procedures and entertainment
facilities develop extensively. Citizens move around here to find apartments because there are
peaceful locations for living and meanwhile every kind of service or entertainment centre is
very close, such as cinemas, banks, shopping mall, hotels, casinos, café, etc.
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Appendix
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