The Potential of Urban Transformation of the City Radial Route in Bratislava, Slovakia

The city, as a stratified urban structure, spread over time and in social coordinates, has its solid and spatial substance for the life of its inhabitants and visitors. The wider city center continues from the central city zone to the peripheral and often developing parts of the city. As a rule, ballast, uncoordinated and disarranged urban structures are usually increasing in this area. The urban explosion in the 20th century has caused oversized systems of housing estates, industrial zones, traffic lines and nodes in cities, forgetting quality, scale, functionality, and beauty. The transformation of these territories is first and foremost a question of a proper understanding of the compositional, social, ecological and economic issues and principles of the sites. Bratislava, due to the terrain morphology, developed further from the center along several main urban radial routes. The Bratislava Eastern Axis, formed by the Ruzinov City Radial, binds to itself the entire transport structure of the Bratislava city part - Ruzinov, its nodal spaces, major amenities (culture house, the marketplace, sports facilities, etc.), brownfield sites, parks and residential zones in a regular geometric grid. The urban and green changes in Ruzinov have been studied, in relation to the main nodes and the main pedestrian lines, as well as the potential for optimal intensification and transformation of the territory, through strengthening the identity of the housing estates by the involvement of the memorable locations such as lakes, marketplace, hospital or linear park of Andrej Hlinka. Such changes are shown in the case studies of Bratislava - Ruzinov on its axis in the locality of the market place Mileticova, Papankovo Square and industrial zone Posne. The emphasis on pedestrian and public spaces, the vitality, and identity of urban areas, the strengthening of blue and green infrastructure and the ecological principles of residential courtyards are possible only in the context of a lively society of the housing estates, dialogue and implementation of transformations with residents and local governments.