The range and scope of an architect’s tasks has shifted: from that of a designer burdened with responsibility for the shape and effectiveness of architecture, to that of a director (animator) of urban space, responsible for the smooth and undisturbed direction of the spectacle taking place within the urban space, of the incessant, simultaneous and unbroken continuum of the mutually interactive scenes from the life of the City. Architecture, or rather urban space, has become a scenography for the synergistic holistic/multidirectional activities sustaining the life of the residents and making the uses and functions of architecture more effective. Programmers, directors, animators of culture, city mayors, grassroots initiatives of the residents, wealthy investors – all of these organizers of urban space should have equal rights and prerogatives in the process of ARRANGING URBAN SPACE. Does a present-day city still need architects?

The reminiscences about prof. Tadeusz Bartkowicz focus on the figure of the significant founder of the Kraków school of urban design and spatial planning as well as environment protection. The synthetic presentation of his considerable accomplishments in this field has been based on the review of his scientific and urban planning work, personal contacts with Professor and the works of other scholars, friends and students.