The Importance of Traditional Housing as a Cultural Architectural Heritage, Forming the Landscape and Identity of the City

The architectural cultural heritage is of great importance for the sustainability of cities and their historic centres. A significant part of it consists of residential buildings, rows of townhouses and houses built according to local building traditions, filling streets and squares. The main aim of the study was to explore the significance of this unique, traditional and uniform development as a carrier of historical and social cultural values and an identifier of the city. Using selected examples of cities where residential buildings with specific characteristics have been preserved, their value for cultural heritage and sustainable development is analyzed, as well as various models of revitalization efforts, taking into account local traditions and needs. Attention was also paid to the impact of multi-tracking and interdisciplinarity on revitalisation outcomes, analysing the action models in the selected centres in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. In addition to tangible cultural heritage, the issue of intangible heritage and their interrelationships was also taken into account. The research revealed the very high value of the historic, residential architecture, which, together with the urban layout, is an important part of the architectural cultural heritage. Attention was also drawn to the fact that this part of the architectural heritage is often neglected. The studies have also shown the great role of local authorities and conservation organisations, urban communities and the necessity of multi-track and interdisciplinary, well-planned revitalisation measures. The research allowed the formulation of some general principles that should be taken into account in the revitalisation process. However, it was found that each city or town has different building traditions, a different degree of preservation of historic architecture and different opportunities. Therefore, it is not possible to create a ready-made, universal programme for historic preservation. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to promote good models, especially when it comes to residential architecture, which is often undervalued and neglected, but has very great potential.