Housing estate, what next? - lecture series

“Urban Landscape, What Next?” is the title of an extensive event organized by the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague in cooperation with the National Network of Healthy Cities, the Center for Housing Quality, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The event is supported by the Visegrad Fund - a project that will take place this year in Prague and will continue over the next three years in neighboring Visegrad countries. The basis of the project is a studio assignment in the Kohout-Tichý studio and an urbanism seminar at the Faculty of Architecture, where 6 locations from Prague and other Czech and Moravian cities will be processed. The project includes a multi-day student workshop, a lecture series, and a international conference which will take place in November of this year. The entire event will conclude with a traveling exhibition and a publication summarizing the project's results, which is planned for release in January 2015.

Housing estates represent a significant social phenomenon in Central and Eastern European countries. Estimates suggest that about 1/3 of the population in the Czech Republic lives in housing estates, and in Prague, it is even nearly half. Their spatial structure brings complications in terms of economic and social sustainability. Until now, as a society, we have almost exclusively addressed buildings and their construction technology standards and have not devoted much attention to finding a long-term strategy for the development of these areas. Seeking answers to questions about the future development of these specific territories thus represents one of the most important topics in spatial planning and urban management.

We would like to invite you to a lecture series that will take place in the building of the Faculty of Architecture in Dejvice. Over the next two months, you can look forward to lectures from both Czech and foreign guests. In the introductory part of the series, guests from Visegrad countries will present their perspectives on housing estates, discussing how they are viewed in the Central European context, whether they are considered a problem to be solved, and what experiences neighboring countries have with the management and regeneration of housing estates. The first lecture will take place on Monday, March 31, at 19:45 in lecture hall No. 107, and the guest will be architect and urban planner Elena Szolgayová, who is the general director of the housing policy and urban development section at the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic.

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