The Chamber of Architects rejects the campaign against the new building regulations

Publisher
ČTK
25.09.2014 21:35

source: iprpraha.cz

Prague - The Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) condemns the campaign led by certain outdoor advertising operators against the new Prague building regulations. According to the architects, the regulations approved by the city council in July are an important tool for creating a quality urban environment in Prague. Among many other changes, they also limit the area of large-format outdoor advertising, thus affecting the profits of its operators. Consequently, they are campaigning against the regulations, threatening that Prague will be flooded with high-rise buildings - which they claim will be enabled by the new regulations.
    The company BigBoard has opposed the regulations. Subsequently, the council called for a postponement of their effectiveness until 2016. However, according to Mayor Tomáš Hudeček (TOP 09), this is not an option; the regulations are said to be outdated. The new regulations will come into force in October.
    "The Prague building regulations establish rules for construction, which the chamber fundamentally welcomes," said its chairman Ivan Plicka to reporters today. However, the architects do not like how a simple and technical topic is becoming the subject of a campaign that they believe is not conducted correctly. "On the one hand, it politicizes the topic, on the other, it blocks the attempt to reach some solution. The Prague building regulations are such a serious issue that it should be discussed properly," says the chairman of ČKA.
    According to architect Ladislav Lábus, who teaches at the Faculty of Architecture at CTU, an unusual situation has arisen in the campaign, where "one business group attacks another - the developers." He claims that it exploits the shifted meaning of the word developer, which has become more derogatory in the country due to some negative examples of disregarding the place and context of construction.
    "The word originally means to develop. I would like to live in a time when cities and municipalities played the role of developers. The fact that they have stepped out of this role leads to situations where sometimes commercial interests prevail over private ones. But this is not a problem of the developers; it is a problem for all of us," said the architect. "The Prague building regulations limit the scope of advertising, but they also restrict the developers. However, they allow for normal construction in Prague, leading to the creation of block developments," he added.
    According to the regulations, new standalone billboards will not be allowed, and when the existing ones' valid building permits expire, companies will have to remove the giant advertising billboards and areas. In addition to regulating advertising over six square meters, the regulations limit urban expansion at the expense of open countryside and prioritize infill development and the utilization of unused areas.
    They return to concepts such as the street line, building line, and regulated building height, which determine the basic parameters for assessing construction. A 3D model of Prague will serve to assess height levels. The regulations also abolish requirements for sunlit living rooms - this does not mean that there will be less daylight in the buildings. The requirements for sunlit rooms were in regulations from the era of mass construction of panel houses, which were often overly sunlit and led to excessive heat in the apartments.

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