The following is a report for a project that constitutes a master thesis in Urban Design at Aalborg University. It seeks to explore and operationalise urban resilience through a contextualised design of public spaces in a new development area of plac Społeczny in the city of Wrocław, Poland.

Within the framework of a local plan of spatial development issued for the area, the project takes public spaces as its field of intervention. Through an iterative design process it aims to examine how public space can be a resource for building a resilient urban system. Through literature review of urban resilience theory, qualities of resilient design are identified, which are used to inform the design decisions. Analysis of the site helps identify specific climate-related crises that the site should be made resilient to.

The project touches upon themes such as the urban system, dynamic non-equilibrium, social capital and trust, community, public good, biodiversity and nature-based solutions. Its final product is a conceptual design of several interconnected public spaces within the site that to different degrees respond to various climate-related crises, in particular heatwaves, strong winds and pluvial flooding, as well as a reflection on how such a system of public space can strengthen the resilience of an urban system on a larger scale.