Analysis of abandoned buildings in Plungė district municipality

Abstract

Such kind of the distribution of abandoned buildings in the subdistricts was determined by the decrease in population in settlements, when nobody takes care of these buildings after the deaths of their owners. The visual inspection of abandoned buildings in the field study revealed that most of these buildings are in poor condition: damaged, rotten structures, windows and doors have disappeared, areas not covered or otherwise protected from human access, asbestos slate roof coverings, abandoned environment (Fig. 1).To summarize, it can be stated that in the analyzed Plungė district municipality, the majority of the existing 26 abandoned buildings are owned by natural persons, of which 16 are residential buildings, and the remaining 10 are non-residential. The distribution of abandoned buildings in the municipality is uneven, the majority of these buildings are located in Plateliai subdistrict. After a visual inspection of these buildings, it can be argued that most of them have been ruined or physically damaged, they are in an emergency condition and posing a threat to the environment and people. Recently, both in Lithuania and in other countries of the world, the activity of construction works is observed, and many new buildings complying with quality standards are being built. However, the buildings of old construction, which are currently unused and abandoned and which do not meet the requirements of today and the public needs of the modern construction, remain excessive. In Lithuania, care is also taken to abandoned and unused buildings that cause significant damage: they disfigure landscape, reduce the attractiveness of the area, endanger human security and cause material damage [1; 2]. In order to avoid this, research is needed in order to enable effective solutions for the management and use of abandoned buildings. The aim of this research is to analyse abandoned buildings in Plungė district municipality, which forms a significant part (25.4%) of Telšiai County's territory. According to the data of the Real Estate Register, in 2017, over 58 thousand of abandoned buildings were in Lithuania, of which almost 57% (33 thousand) were residential buildings. According to the Plungė district municipality council list, currently, there are 26 abandoned, unused buildings in Plungė district municipality, of which to 23 buildings are formed parcels for their intended purpose. All of these buildings have owners (mostly natural persons), which are inadequately supervised and technically disorganized. The distribution of abandoned buildings in the municipality is uneven. Most of these objects are located in Plateliai subdistrict (7), and least of them are in Kuliai and Alsėdžiai subdistricts (by 1).