Spatial chaos remains one of the major problems facing Polish cities and suburbs. According to representatives of the architectural sector, the issue requires systemic rather than piecemeal solutions, as well as coherent spatial planning. In their view, the amendment to the Act on Spatial Planning and Development is a step in the right direction, but it is still not enough. The adoption of a National Architectural Policy could become a major step forward.
“Spatial chaos in Poland is a phenomenon that affects us basically every day when we leave a building. To be fair, we are slowly trying to civilise this chaos. What lies ahead of us now is the search for systemic tools, because if we act step by step, we simply will not manage in time. There is too much to do. All the work we are now initiating on architectural policy must focus on looking for systemic tools,” Piotr Fokczyński, President of the National Council of the Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland, told Newseria.
According to analysts from the Polish Economic Institute, spatial chaos can be understood as the incorrect and suboptimal location of buildings and technical infrastructure, including residential infrastructure. It is reflected, among other things, in excessive dispersion of development and a lack of coordination between the growth of housing stock and the development of infrastructure serving residents’ needs, including transport routes, public service facilities and retail and service outlets.
In a 2022 report, PIE analysts cited data from KPZK PAN indicating that spatial chaos generates significant economic costs, estimated at at least PLN 84.3 billion. These include the costs of excessive commuting, the construction and maintenance of redundant infrastructure and excessive road traffic.
“Architectural policy will certainly regulate the situation, but on one condition — that it is not a theoretical document, but one that, in every area it covers, seeks an element of agency and effectiveness. Then, across individual ministries and areas of our lives, it will turn into an effective system. Perhaps in some time we will meet in a new, better place to live — one that is orderly rather than chaotic,” Fokczyński said.
Work on the National Architectural Policy has been underway since November 2025. It is intended to be the first comprehensive document in Poland setting out directions for the development of architecture and the quality of public space. Poland remains one of six EU member states that do not have such a strategy, while it already exists in 35 European countries.
“Comprehensive thinking about space is a challenge because it is shaped by a whole range of substantive legal provisions. It begins with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The architectural profession cannot deal with this on its own. Space is also shaped by care for historic buildings and the preservation of historical urban fabric. There are many elements involved,” the expert explained. “We are strongly advocating for individual ministerial policies and issues to interpenetrate horizontally and bring all the necessary elements together into one coherent system. Who would once have thought that education, schooling and teaching should also be involved in this?”
In April 2023, Poland’s Supreme Audit Office published a report on the state of spatial planning in the country. It found that administrative decisions were detached from adopted assumptions and that there were no lasting principles for coherent spatial management. The regulations in force since 2003 did not ensure rational shaping of spatial order in municipalities or their sustainable development, and they also limited public oversight of planning processes.
“The Polish spatial planning system lacks urban planning. This means that there is planning, there are building permits for individual structures, but in the intermediate area — concerning the placement of buildings close to one another in the context of social infrastructure, that is, a place to live — very little is actually planned. Finding tools that would systemically translate into local law would give us a chance to fill this gap very quickly,” said the President of the National Council of the Chamber of Architects.
In his view, architects should be partners in this process.
“At present, this is not the case. Various acts of local law are created, and the architect appears only when there is movement in the real estate market. Instead, architects should be involved much earlier, at the stage of planning a coherent living environment. Such tools are slowly emerging, and in the new act, integrated planning and integrated investment plans are gradually moving in the right direction, but we would like to show how this can be done better,” Fokczyński stressed.
In 2023, an amendment to the Act on Spatial Planning and Development was adopted. Its aim was to organise the system and introduce new, clearer rules. It was a response to problems affecting Polish cities and suburbs, where for years development had often been carried out in an uncoordinated way. The reform provides for municipal general plans to replace the study of conditions and directions of spatial development. Their provisions are to be binding for local plans and individual zoning decisions.
One element of the reform is the integrated investment plan, a new type of local spatial development plan prepared for a specific investment and a specific investor. It is intended to support more comprehensive planning. It enables the municipality and investor to jointly determine exactly what will be built, under what conditions and what additional obligations the investor will assume. The mutual obligations of the municipality and investor are set out in an urban planning agreement.
At the end of April, the Sejm adopted another amendment to the Act on Spatial Planning and Development. Under it, the procedure for preparing integrated investment plans is to be streamlined, while the deadline for municipalities to prepare general plans has been extended by two months, to 31 August 2026. This responds to demands raised by local government units. Thanks to these changes, the spatial planning reform is expected to become more effective and easier to implement.
Representatives of the sector discussed the need for systemic changes in spatial management and the development of assumptions for the National Architectural Policy during the Congress of Polish Architecture, which took place on 14–15 May at the Museum of Polish History in Warsaw.
