Readiness Is Not Leverage: Latent-Field Geometry as Spatial Decision Support in Sustainable Regeneration

A key aspect of sustainability is regenerating inhabited urban areas without demolishing them, since this helps retain the embodied carbon and spatial capital built up in existing buildings while preventing the displacement that results from clearing land. In this approach, which prioritises retention, a major issue when reviving a district is where the first intervention should take place. The usual method is to map out ‘readiness’—a combination of accessibility, public transport facilities, and current levels of activity—and then focus interventions on areas where this criterion is highest. Yet because readiness is evaluated in terms of existing assets, it tends to identify streets that are already working well, and these are also the ones with the least potential for further improvement. This study measures the part of a district which has so far been left unused. The latent field of a district consists of streets that are highly accessible within the larger city network but are not recruited by routes connecting the district’s specified supra-local destinations. The shape of this latent field, whether in the form of long lines or scattered patches, remained stable across the tested threshold and generator-inventory perturbations, whereas its size mainly reflects the modelling assumptions. The practical consequences of this approach are evident in the ISKRA creative-district project, situated in the historic part of Toruń, Poland. Placed at the point of peak readiness, the insertion model brings 11% of the target rib onto the route skeleton; the same generator 500 m along the rib brings 70%. A similar intervention carried out in a different location has no effect. Activation is not related to distance, but it is limited by distance. When applying the method to Toruń’s Old Town, the resulting latent field comprises areas rather than lines, showing that a different intervention strategy is needed. The method requires only an open street network, a list of the main district destinations, and a commitment to preserving the existing urban structure; it generates siting predictions that can be tested using pedestrian counts.