The role of green urban wastelands in 3rd place creation. Challenge for urban policy in Poland

An Urban area is a complex system that constantly changes, forms dynamically and functions independently. Despite of huge development pressure coming from the fast urban growth there are still many neglected areas or so-called urban wastelands. These zones seem to be commonly considered (also by local governments and city planners) as worthless and unproductive critical spaces that need to be invested in and returned to the city. On the other hand, we a hould point out a growing conviction among scientists about the importance of wastelands in context of their strong impact on the urban ecosystem and some social aspects of urban life as well. (Gandy, 2013; Wysocki, Sikorski 2009).
The urban wasteland is nowadays one of extremely few forms of informal green spaces that people can freely use according to their needs and ideas. These places don’t have any defined forms or functions, so they leave a space for their user’s creativity. Supposedly, they may take different forms from making grass roots to much more complex bottom up initiatives.