Process of Incorporation and Morphological Transformations of Rural Settlement Patterns in the Context of Urban Development. The Case Study of Łódź

The subject of the research covers the problem of morphological changes in former villages incorporated into the city on the example of Łódź. The first objective of the article is to analyse the urban development of the city, taking into account the territorial changes and incorporation of villages. The second objective includes the analysis of morphological changes in former villages that have taken place after their incorporation into the city since the mid-twentieth century. The study required analysis of source materials in the form of preserved historical maps and today's plans, legal acts, planning documents and chosen statistical data. The analysis of changes in the spatial structure of villages incorporated into the city was possible mainly thanks to the retrogressive, as well as progressive method. The article also uses the method of morphological analysis of the city plan based on the Conzenian tradition of urban morphology. The study applies the typology of rural settlement patterns, taking into account the issue of morphological changes and relics of morphological features from the period before the incorporation into the city. It is characteristic that the transformation process of rural settlement patterns took place in different ways and with various intensity depending mostly on the scale of urbanisation processes. It was possible to distinguish the orthomorphic transformations, where all spatial modifications were mainly additions and did not destroy the morphogenetic core, so the former layouts have been preserved almost completely, semi-metamorphic transformations, where spatial reorganisation was considerable, but not total, and clear relics of the historical rural settlement pattern have been saved, and metamorphic transformations, in which almost all elements of the former morphological structure have been completely erased and the former layouts have been totally changed.