Inventory of Urbanism 2014 - Reflection

On November 28, 2014, the fifth conference Inventory of Urbanism took place in Prague under the subtitle "Why and what to ask? Methodology for the assignment of urban plans for large cities." Like every year, it was organized this year by the Institute of Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) under the auspices of the Czech Chamber of Architects and in cooperation with the Institute of Planning and Development of the City of Prague. The conference was attended by 220 people, and the entire day's proceedings were broadcast live online on the ČVUT website.

The Inventory of Urbanism is a program conference focused on current topics in the fields of urbanism, planning, designing, and constructing settlements, mainly addressing issues of contemporary planning and its links to real construction and positive urban development. Its aim is to periodically map the state of urbanism in the Czech Republic, facilitate reflection within the field, and communicate with the public and public administration.

This year's conference content included the presentation of the outcomes of the second phase of the research project “Methodology for Assigning Urban Plans, Program Project Hl.mp 2013–15”, which is being developed by the Faculty of Architecture of ČVUT as part of the Research, Development, and Innovation Program of the City of Prague “The Relationship between Urban Development and the Preparation of Spatial Planning Documentation.” The fundamental vision of this project is to create a methodology for assigning urban plans based on extensive research into current expressions and trends in the development of Czech cities in a European context. The purpose of the research is to verify the processes and relevant tools of spatial planning in relation to the assignment of the urban plan. It primarily concerns verifying their meaning and purpose, including – among other things – their suitability for existing legal anchors.

In the morning session of lectures and discussions, the team of the principal investigator led by Assoc. Prof. Jan Jehlík and Dr. Jiří Plos presented the structure and content of the final outputs, organizational principles, the processing process, and key research themes. "We want to find the correct assignment of the urban plan for the city. We therefore ask about the requirements for the assignment. So we must inquire about the requirements for the development of the city, the requirements for the plan of this development, and the requirements for decision-making about this development. The aim is current, well-structured information, clearly formulated principles, and clear negotiation rules," among other things, stated Jan Jehlík, head of the Institute of Urbanism at the FA ČVUT and guarantor of the conference.

The morning session was followed by afternoon presentations of the authors' works from individual research teams led by architects Milan Körner, Jan Sedlák, Ivan Plicka, Michal Kohout, Karel Maier, Jaroslav Zima, and Tomáš Prouza. The presentations were thematically focused on individual scale layers from regional spatial planning to detailed solutions for selected urban locations and procedural contexts. Some topics were then intensely discussed within the entire plenary.

Recordings of this year's presentations will be available in January on the website of Inventory of Urbanism. All information about the ongoing research on the methodology for assigning urban plans is available at VP FA ČVUT.