Дослідження молодих науковців ARCHITECTURAL DOMINANTS IN LANDSCAPE OF TRI-CITY

Article presents brief description of dominants' role in landscape of cities, definitions used in research. Main goal was to present mentioned objects, their spatial distribution and role performed in landscape. Article presents also: definitions of key terms, delimitation of area being analysed for presence of predominant features, their localization, classification and role performed ind landscape of Tri-City.Also area of study is described, along with its localisation and key spatial characteristics, such as height above sea level, major spatial barriers, along with administrative units. As a part ot the study, cities were divided to groups of districts, chosen from administrative units located next to each other and similar in terms of spatial development. Some groups were excluded from further analysis mainly due to their weak spatial connections with main parts of the analyzed cities. Within groups of districts not excluded earlier, field studies were conducted. As a result, the catalogue of existing dominants were created, along with their typology. Also, assesment of transformations of landscape in the context of rise of dominants was conducted.


Introduction.
Architectural dominants plays very important role in formation of landscape in cities. They can change it for a very long periods. Additionally, mentioned objects tend to be important factors which causes many changes taking place in the cities, because they can influence developement of many areas. Last important characteristic of dominants is that they often become signature of cities, in which where they are located. This applies especially in case of altitudinal architectural dominants, which are also buildings. That's why study focused specifically on them.
Main goal was to present architectural dominants located in Tri-City, describe their spatial distribution and role performed in landscape. This was achieved by conducting a cataloguing of mentioned features and classyfing them.
Another goal was to define influence exerted by dominants on their surroundings. Based on analyses of mentioned areas, an attempt was made to determine their influence on building of new dominants and on landscape of whole Tri-City.

Important definitions.
Two definitions of most important concepts were created for use in researchlandscape and dominant. Both of them already has been widely discussed in literature, so their definitions were created based upon the existing ones.
2.1.1. Landscape. Landscape is term variously defined in many branches of science. It is most commonly used in geography or biology, but also in architecture or biochemistry. However, in everyday language word "landscape" is most commonly used to describe view (Richling, Solon, 1996).
For purposes of research, landscape was defined as follows -it is physiognomy of area perceived by people, whose character results from the nature of natural and human factors, costituting a public good. This definition was created due to character of analysed area, comprised mainly from urban areas.
2  (Szolginia, 1992). For this reason, not all definitions of dominants are suitable for purposes of research. For purposes of research, following definition of dominants was created -building or group of buildings, all of which stand out significantly in the landscape of city and in the same time meet the following criteria: • are significantly higher than surrounding buildings and/or are located on higher altitude above sea level than their surroundings, • shape and/or colour particullary distinguish them from the enviroment, • their location or enviroment particullary affect their visibility, • serve as residential, service or industrial. Openwork and slender buildings, such as antennas, mast or power poles, were excluded from analysis. This does not include sacred objects (mostly church towers) because many o them are usually designed as dominants and are still serving that function in the landscape.

Area of study.
Study area consist of selected districts forming cities, which belongs to Tri-City (Gdynia, Gdańsk and Sopot (Fig. 1). Some districts were excluded from analysis due to exisistence of distinc spatial barieres (like e.g. dense forest areas, rivers, major communication routes). Also, districts are characterized by the dominance of develepment typically agricultural or forestry. Distribution of districts within individual cities of Tri-City is shown on figure 2, along with the information wheter they have been taken into account later in the study. Sopot was considered as a whole because of large number of districts with a very small area, compared to the similar administrative units of Gdynia and Gdańsk.

Fig. 1. Location of Tri-City againist voivodships of Poland Fig. 2. Districts included and excluded fromy analysis
Districts taken into account in the study were considered in groups, separated on the basis of the assesment of similarity between buildings and main functions of districts. This method has been chosen because ot the administrative nature of existing distribution of the districts -often specific areas of cities forms huge areas, characterized by plain or very similar appearance. However, they are split between different districts because of various reasons. Whereas, districts excluded from analysis were divided into groups primarly taking into account reasons of exclusion. All mentioned groups are shown on figure 3. Whereas, on figures 4 and 5, they are presented together with height above sea level and existing spatial barriers. Further in the article, short characteristic of group included in analysis were presented.

Gdynia.
Gdynia is port city located in northern part of Tri-City. In the past, it was a fishing village. Gdynia obtained city rights in 1926. It was related to the rapid growth stimulated mainly by construction ot the port. At that time, considerable spatial development took place -many surrounding villages were joined to the city. They later evolved into districts. Terrain of the city is diverse -between specific areas there are signifficant differences in altitude, multiple valleys and hills are present. It is associated with the localization at meeting point of two geographical regions: Kashubian Lake District and Kashubian Coast. For both, characteristic is presence of land forms such as: top and bottom moraines, glacial vallleys and erosion valleys (Kondracki, 2000).
Districts of Gdynia covered in analysis were divided into three groups: 1. northern districts (group number 1)dominating type of building are multi-family residential settlements bulit in technology called "big plate". Currently, there are also present large industrial areas; 2. downtown districts (group 2) -in this area, prevailing type of building are modernistic-style, multistorey houses, mainly residential; 3. southern districts (group 3) -in this area, low single-or multifamiliary housing prevails. Tall buildings are present only occasionally, with a very strong tendency to concentrate in groups.

Sopot.
Sopot is city located in the middle of Tri-City. Sopot obtained city rights in 1901. City limits are determined by administrative borders of Gdynia, Gdańsk and Gulf of Gdańsk coast. Significant part of the city is occupied by forest areas. Sopot is divided into a number of small districts. In addition, within the city there are no larger areas very different from each other in terms of buildings height, which significantly impedes their division into groups. For this reasons, it was decided to treat Sopot in its entirety as a separate group (number 4 in the map).
The city is located in the folowing geographical regions: mesoregion of Kashubian Coast, micro-region Terrace Sopocko-Wrzeszczański and Kashubian Lakeland, mainly in western part of the city (Kondracki, 2000). In the eastern part of the city, terrain is mostly flat, height above sea level increases significantly in the western part, where are located moraine hills, mainly covered by forest.

Gdańsk.
Gdańsk is city located in southern part of Tri-City. It is the oldest and also the largest of all cities forming mentioned aglomeration. It has long history, which has an impact on occurence of significant differences between districts as they has been created in different time periods and were subject to various transformations.
City is located in the four different physicalgeography units, mesoregions: Żuławy of the Vistula, Vistula Spit, Kashubian Coast and Kashubian Lake District. Most areas covered in the analysis are located in the premises of last two mentioned mesoregions. This has impact on the existence of significant differences in height above sea level -areas located in western part of the city are at far higher altitude than ones located in the east.
Districts of Gdańsk covered in analysis were divided into five groups: 1. Northern residential areas (group 5)dominating type of building are multi-family residential settlements bulit in technology called "big plate"; 2. old residential districts (group 6) -prevailing type of building are single-and multifamily buildings bulit in different historical periods; 3. residential districts (group 7) -mainly composed of medium ang high multi-family housing; 4. port districts (group 8) -dominating function is industry and transport, districts are strongly divided by spatial barriers; 5. city center (group 9) -historical city center, characterized by a large number of historic, monumental buildings.
3. Catalogue of dominants located within analyzed area of Tri-City. As a part ot the study, field research was carried out. It's aim has been to catalogue dominants located in analysed area of Tri-City. Results were presented in the form of catalogue containing descriptions of mentioned objects, their characteristics, localization and surroundings. On figure 6, localizations of this objects are presented.
5. Transformation of landscape in the context of rise of dominants. Last stage of study was an attempt to determine influence of existing dominants on the landscape. This phenomenon was considered in relation to a number of selected aspects: location of mentioned objectss, their mutual neighbourhood, height and impressions they make on observer. The article focuses only on a few chosen from them.

Periods of formation of dominants.
Within the typology different type of dominants were featured, taking into account particullary their function and period of origin. First, longest period includes the time before 1939, when only sacred dominants (churches) had been built. These objects are distinguished by their deliberate design as dominating features in landscape, serving as landmarks. In addition, during their erection, no other tall buildings were bulit, which further strenghtened their role.
Second period of the dominants contruction covers years 1945-1989, when most analysed object has been bulit, majority of them are tall buildings bulit in technology of "big plate". Their functions are mainty residential or service-residential. In a few cases, objects strictly used for service or sacred had been bulit. In the described period, first modern tall buildings were bulitmassive, mostly with elevation based on glass or similar materials.
During the last period, during years 1990-2015, there was significant intensification of the process of building dominants, especially near already existing ones. They primarly features residential or serviceresidential functions.

Influence of existing dominants on landscape.
Influence of dominants in landscape depends on many factors that often are very important to distinct object as dominating. In article, two of them has been discussedlocalisation and mutual neighbourhood. Also, spatial distribution of mentioned features was discussed.
Localisation of many objects is crucial factor which decide about distincting many objects as dominating. In addition, it determines the area from which such objects are perceived, affecting the distance of attraction of obsever's attention or restricting this interaction only to specific directions.
Mutual neighbouhood is factor considered when predominant feature consists of few buildings and/or other similar objects are located in its close vincinity. Influence on landscape exerted by neighbouring dominants tends to decrease with the number until they cease to stand out in the landscape, creating a wider background. It is caused by the fact that a single object strongly outlines visually in the landscape than the greater number of them, located close to each other.
Dominants are located unevenly through analyzed area -outside the city of Gdańsk there are only a few, isolated objects. Whereas, most of them are located in Gdańsk. Most of them are concentrated in several groups, as shown on figure 6. As can be observed, size of these groups tend to increase when new dominants are bulit near existing ones. This is especially visible in the case of residential, service or service-residential buildings.
6. Conclusion. During the study, cataloguing of existing altitudinal architectural dominants had been made. Their spatial distribution was examined. In addition, six types of analyzed objects were isolated. They were later used, along with informations gathered earlier, to made assesment of influence of dominants on landscape and ways it changes. This influence is significant. In addition, in the area of Tri-City, takes place a process of disappearance of individual dominants, along with construction of more such objects in the vincinity of existing ones.
Article was written on basis of unpublished master's thesis "Architectural dominants in landscape of Tri-City" (Beger M., 2016, University of Gdansk).