The main purpose of this article is to present facts related to the history of Port Praski located on the right bank of the Vistula river in Warsaw, which is currently being built. The subject of the consideration is the area and development of the former Port Praski, which project and the fi rst works began after the First World War. It’s spatial and functional connections with the downtown area and surroundings are also key issue. The article presents plans, concepts, projects and investments, furthermore theirs level of implementation. Signifi cant eff ort was made to answer the research questions concerning social expectations regarding the function and the direction of Port Praski development. In the final part of the article was made a comparison of existing revitalization works in Port Praski with HafenCity – the district of Hamburg, where the revitalization project has been already implemented for 20 years. However, comparative analysis revealed several signifi cant differences, allowed to conclude that Polish model of revitalization is only a partially identical with the approach applied in Western Europe.

The notion of the centre is characterised by semantic pluralism, as its meaning is dependent on the scale from which we view a given subject, even in the discipline of architecture and urban planning. The author refers to studies on defining city centres and downtown areas from the period of the second half of the 20th century, confronting them with contemporary theories (space of flows) in all aspects of the urban environment.