PragueScape (Page 2)

Walking through downtown Prague, one could easily come under the impression that, aside from the ubiquitous shops selling Bohemian crystal, marionettes and absinthe, most buildings house high-end hotels. Immaculately preserved historical facades conceal an industry of contemporary comfort. And while some of the buildings were originally built for accommodation, many more are reconstructed properties: former shopping galleries, restaurants, private houses. This homogeneity is starting to make the streets of Prague a bit dull. The city centre now has some 650 hotels. The accommodations boom that took off in the early 1990s has hardly slowed down. This is surprising given the current economic conditions. Economists are beginning to offer glimmers of hope that the end of the recession is in sight,Continue Reading

The verb “to tunnel” in the Czech language acquired a nasty ring to it in the 1990s, when the term became synonymous with corrupt business practices. “To tunnel” came to mean to covertly siphon – under the guise of legality – the assets of one company to another. As a noun “tunnel” rarely inspires the same degree of controversy. Tunnels are trendy in Prague these days. A new railway corridor now passes under Vítkov Hill, allowing a greater number of passenger trains in and out of the main train station. At Letná in Prague 7, the Blanka tunnel, which is still under construction, promises to speed up the flow of traffic, allowing more efficient transit through the city. And theContinue Reading

Before the floods of 2002, Karlín was a crumbly sort of neighbourhood with vast abandoned factory complexes, elegant but battered apartment buildings and broken-up cobbled streets. In spite of this, Karlín never felt like an urban wasteland. Tucked just north of the city centre in Prague 8, the neighbourhood always had a distinct community feel to it, with locals actually hanging out in the streets, kids riding on bikes, dog-walkers stopping to chat. Much has changed in the last seven years. The factory buildings are still there but most now wear new coats of paint on their repaired facades. And high-end projects such as the Danube House, Amazon Court, River Diamond and Corso Karlín are changing the face of theContinue Reading

Ask any Czech to explain the word sídliště and you are likely to hear about concrete pre-fab buildings, isolation, boredom and urban decay. It’s easy to forget that estate housing was originally a utopian concept aimed at helping replace slums with brighter, healthier housing for low-income families in the 1920s and 30s throughout the developed world. It’s especially easy to forget if you’re standing in the middle of Jižní Město, the Czech Republic’s biggest sídliště. These negative associations aren’t likely to change anytime soon. Although sídliště revitalisation has been on the Czech government’s agenda for well over a decade, change has been slow. Roughly a third of all Czechs and half of all Praguers live in paneláks. The country hasContinue Reading

The battle over Prague’s skyline is far from over, even after UNESCO decided last year that erecting high-rises in Pankrác would not harm the city’s heritage zone. Earlier this month Lidové noviny reported that Arnika, a local environmental group that has been trying to stop the Pankrác project from the very beginning, is planning to send a complaint to UNESCO. Arnika argues that in greenlighting the project, City Hall failed to meet recommendations made by international experts. One of these was to decrease the height of the buildings to around 60-70 metres. City representatives argue, however, that the height limit was merely a suggestion, noting that it would be wrong for UNESCO to adopt the role of Prague’s top urbanContinue Reading

Before ugly sprawling panel estates such as Bohnice and Jižní Město, Prague had Invalidovna. Today a sadly neglected pocket of neo-functionalism on the edge of Karlín, the complex was a bold experiment in socialist housing upon its completion in 1965. For a while at least, it offered some of the most sought-after modern flats in the city. Designed by a team of architects led by Josef Polák at the state-run Pražský projektový ústav, the buildings made use of the latest materials and technologies, which included a sort of panel block building kit, allowing for multiple interior layouts and long rows of ribbon windows. A total of 1,260 flats, built on what was once a 13-hectare military training ground, were intendedContinue Reading

Being a pedestrian in Prague means being an obstacle, something unwelcome that has the potential to slow down traffic. It means endlessly waiting on crosswalks and all too often being forced to take detours through dank, dark tunnels or overpasses with limited access. It means knowing when to break into a light jog when you’re crossing the street. It means mentally thanking every driver who doesn’t run you down. Until seven years ago, pedestrians here didn’t even have right of way on crosswalks. It’s easy to blame Prague’s shortcomings on poor urban planning under the communist regime. But little has changed since 1989 to make the city safer for pedestrians. Aside from a few streets in the historical city centre,Continue Reading