September, 2021

Towards ordinary quarters: the development of housing estates in Prague after transformation

Ouředníček, M., & Kopecká, Z. (2021). Towards ordinary quarters: the development of housing estates in Prague after transformation. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09891-4

The main objective of this paper is to explain and understand contemporary spatial changes within housing estates in Prague with special attention to the role of public and private institutions. We argue that housing estates are undergoing considerable functional heterogenization and becoming integral parts of the city as a consequence of mix of commercial development, specific public policies and activities of local actors. We focus on two crucial aspects of the contemporary development of housing estates within the capital city of Prague: (i) the new functional differentiation of housing estates as a consequence of private activities and commercialization; (ii) the role of master planning and public policies on the level of both the city and self-governed city districts. Activities of commercial and public institutions are perceived as structuration processes enabled and restricted by the constraints of contemporary post-transformational city. Methodologically the paper is based on analyses of the content of planning documents and policies (Metropolitan Plan, Strategic plan of Prague and selected documents of the city districts) and statistical information sources that relate to three levels of spatial detail. A case study of the largest housing estate and a symbol of socialist housing in Czechia—Jižní Město—illustrates the impact of state and municipal policies and commercialization on the local level.

PUBLISHED WORK

References and Links to Papers

January, 2022

Housing estates' trajectories in post-socialist countries: Similarities and differences of Estonian and Czech cities

Kadi Kalm, Petra Špačková, Jan Sýkora, Ondřej Špaček (2023): Housing estates' trajectories in post-socialist countries: Similarities and differences of Estonian and Czech cities. Cities, 135, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104209.

An increasing number of studies focus on the divergent trajectories of housing estates in post-socialist cities; however, they are mostly case studies of particular cities. There is little research that offers a more systematic and comparative analysis of different housing estates between the settlement systems of different countries. This study aims to explore the trajectories of housing estates from 1989 to 2011 by examining neighbourhood transitions in Estonian and Czech cities based on socio-economic, demographic, and ethnic characteristics of their residents. We use data from population censuses and clustering techniques to create typologies of housing estate neighbourhoods. Our results suggest that the main development trajectory of Estonian and Czech housing estates has been stability with neighbourhoods remaining in the same housing estate type and developing similarly as other urban neighbourhoods. This is mainly related to housing market specifics of post-socialist countries, and ageing being the main mechanisms of residential change of housing estates. Other types of trajectories are differentiated along two lines: the position of the city within the settlement system and the location of heavy industry in the city during the socialist period, indicating persistent impact of socialist urban development for housing estates.