Club for Old Prague: Pragmatism Wins

PRAGUE - Uncultured pragmatism, disdain, ties between politicians and investors, corruption, irreversible interventions, and brutal reconstructions - this is according to the Club for Old Prague the balance sheet of 15 years in the construction development of the Czech metropolis, particularly its historic center and protected zones. "An environment without binding rules allows for almost anything," stated the club's director Richard Biegel at today's press conference.
"The municipal heritage care often operates under the principle 'what a passerby can't see from the street doesn't harm the city'," said the chairwoman of the Club for Old Prague, Kateřina Bečková. She criticized that the meaning of preserving the authentic values of the historic city is reduced to its external aesthetic and tourist presentation.
The club highlighted the necessity for the expedited approval of a long-existing regulatory plan that would set clear rules for renovations and new constructions. They also believe it is essential to liberate the National Heritage Institute from the direct influence of politicians and architectural lobbies and to systematically ensure that the institute's expert opinions are binding for the municipality.
The institute, which until December of last year was a professional and politically independent body, has been significantly paralyzed and weakened due to the unprecedented interventions of Minister of Culture Vítězslav Jandák, claim the club's representatives.
They are also convinced that the municipality places heritage concerns as a second or third priority. "It would be foolish to assume that the heritage conservation department will be significantly opposed to the municipality's interests," declared Bečková.
The club pointed out the increasing number of cases where investors consciously carry out their plans without permission and would rather risk a fine than a project rejection by heritage authorities. There have even been cases where an investor demolished interiors in a valuable historical building under the pretext of clearance work without a building permit, the club stated.
Heritage professionals associated in it advocate not only for the preservation of the city’s skyline but also for the character of its "roof landscape," thus they oppose high-rise buildings and the mass approval of attic conversions in the historic city center, against the destruction of historical rafters and insensitive replacements of roofing materials.
They also point out the demolitions of buildings from the first two-thirds of the 19th century, whose value is not yet universally recognized, and the ongoing underestimation of the value of industrial architecture.
According to the club, the construction of underground garages in Prague brings not only problems with an increased number of cars in the center and with the visual disruption of the "street exterior" from garage entrances but also difficult-to-predict impacts on the flow of groundwater.