International Newsletter of IPR Prague Issue 4

ISSUE N°4, March 2018

INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 4^th edition of IPR’s International Newsletter. 2018 in Prague has kicked off with a bang, and we have a number of exciting updates and initiatives to share with you.

We'd also like to highlight that IPR Prague is currently soliciting entries for a new competition for the design of public transport stops. Read more below and submit your entries by the April 18th deadline for consideration!

Thank you for reading, and please don’t hesitate to contact our international team at international@ipr.praha.eu with any questions or suggestions. We are also happy to consider suggestions for our “food for thought” section, should you wish to highlight an interesting initiative that your city is undertaking.

Best wishes,
The EU and International Affairs Team, IPR Prague

Top International Teams to Transform Charles Square (Karlovo Náměstí)

The Prague City Council has approved the short-listing of five teams of architects and landscape architects that will be working in collaboration with the city, IPR Prague, and other stakeholders on the transformation of the park in Charles Square over the coming months. Selection of the teams was the first step in the process of revitalizing the long-neglected park.

The first workshop with all of the short-listed teams took place in February. As part of this unique competitive process, there will be two more workshops with all five teams until a final winner is selected.

You can read more about the short-listed teams and the competition here.

Call for Ideas: Prague Seeks a New Design for Transport Shelters and Railings

Prague is on the hunt for a new design for its public transport stops. This comes as a follow-up to the selection of a winner for the new design of Prague's benches, litter bins and bicycle racks.

The city’s aim is to create its own, unique transport stop design based on the particulars of Prague's environment. The transport stop should not only protect against bad weather but also simplify passenger orientation and have an attractive design. The competition is being managed by IPR Prague together with Prague City Hall.

For those who are interested, the deadline for applications is April 18th, 2018.

You can read more about the competition here and here.

Climate Adaptation in the Face of Climate Change: an Ambition Setting Workshop for Prague to the Year 2050

As part of the UNaLAB ambition setting workshop held in Prague in early January of this year, Prague hosted international researchers from the Technical University of Eindhoven, who conducted interviews and led group discussions with local stakeholders on Prague's ambitions for 2050 regarding climate adaptation and resilience. The workshop was observed by an expert from the Fraunhofer Institution from Germany as part of an ongoing analysis of Prague.

Results of the workshop included the identification of achievements, challenges, and key strategies for the future with regard to climate adaptation in the city. The overall ambition for the project was identified as: “Prague 2050: A livable city in harmony with nature”.

Click here to read more about the workshop and here to learn about UNaLAB.

Explore Prague with a new 3D model application!

Now you can explore Prague in 3D from anywhere, thanks to a new application released by IPR Prague. Unlike Googlemaps and other programs, the application provides a wide range of detailed information about every building; for instance, it can tell you how many floors a building has and who owns it.

Click here to read more about the app and here to use it.

SPIMA Final Conference

As reported in previous issues of the newsletter, Prague is one of the cities being studied as part of the SPIMA project (Spatial Dynamics and Strategic Planning in Metropolitan Areas), which is part of a targeted analysis managed by ESPON (European Observation Network for Territorial development and Cohesion).

In addition to Prague, the cities of Oslo, Brussels, Lille, Lyon, Zürich, Brno, Vienna, Terrassa,Torino, and Akershus County are taking part in the SPIMA project.

As part of the project, information about the current state of spatial planning and policies in metropolitan areas was collected, and strategies and methods for supporting cooperation on the metropolitan scale were identified.

At the conference in January, attendees were treated to a number of presentations on metropolitan areas and the governance challenges they face.

You can learn more about SPIMA here.

photo: ESPON

WHAT ELSE HAS HAPPENED SINCE DECEMBER?

Marek Zderadicka, Director of IPR Prague’s Infrastructure section, participated in a panel on whether urban rail operators can afford to prioritize passenger satisfaction at the 6th INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY SUMMIT, held in Prague from February 21^stthrough February 23^rd, 2018. Marek was also asked to give the keynote presentation, during which he noted that while there is a high level of user satisfaction with public transport in Prague and there are plans to expand both the tram and metro systems, there is room for improvement on the rail lines serving Prague’s outlying suburbs. To decrease the dependence of these areas on the car, Marek suggested increasing capacity on the suburban lines. This could ultimately be achieved through the construction of a high speed rail line, which would free up existing train and line capacity for commuters.

IPR Prague was also represented at the URBAN FUTURE CONFERENCE, which took place in Vienna from February 28^th through March 2^nd. Our colleagues spent 2.5 days being inspired by an international array of speakers on topics including green cities, smart cities, happy cities, and learning from each other’s mistakes at the conference’s “f*ck up night”, where four politicians from different parts of the world described well-intentioned plans that had gone awry. Even the storm many were calling the “Beast from the East” couldn’t stop us from trekking around the city in the snow to learn why Vienna is ranked as the most liveable city in the world.

In addition to hosting a rich program of lectures, workshops, movies, and debates, CAMP exhibited the works of Czech photographer David Gaberle throughout the month of February. CAMP also hosted an afternoon dedicated to public transport buffs, with live footage from the driver’s seat of a tram and metro car, a slideshow of historic photos of Prague’s transport infrastructure, and activities for the youngest transport fans among us. If you missed these events, have no fear, there’s always something interesting happening at CAMP, or you can come on down to see the latest installation, which forms the second part of the Prague Tomorrow series and showcases 66 projects that have the potential to change the face of Prague as we know it.

VISITS FROM ABROAD - We have been pleased to host a number of international delegations at IPR Prague this year, continuing in our tradition of knowledge exchange with colleagues from abroad. We are happy to welcome official delegations from planning authorities or other related government agencies. Please send us an email and we will help you plan your visit.

WHAT DOES THE MOBILITY PLANNING SECTION ACTUALLY DO?

Talking to our Mobility Specialist, Mr. Václav Novotný

This month, we decided to reach out to IPR Prague’s Transportation Planning department to get to know them better. We asked our colleague, Vaclav Novotny, to answer two questions for us:

Which projects is the mobility planning section currently working on?

At the moment, in addition to our ongoing advisory activities, we are working on several important projects for the City of Prague, including the Prague Sustainable Mobility Plan, on which we are cooperating with other city stakeholders and with the Municipality. We are also working on the city’s logistics strategy, which is a relatively big deal for our section, and collaborating with our colleagues on the new metropolitan plan, as well as working to improve several important streets in Prague for all users.

Our colleagues at the modelling office are working on a new transport model for a railway connection from the city center to the Prague Airport, together with the Technical Administration of Roadways of the City of Prague, the organization which manages roads owned by the city.

What are the biggest challenges that Prague’s transport planners are tackling in their work?

Transport planning in Prague is very complex and includes many stakeholders and decision makers, with a total of 57 distinct city districts. So the biggest challenge is to find a compromise that works for everybody. This makes the process of preparing and gaining approval for new transport infrastructure and street improvement measures quite long and arduous.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Prague to Launch Competition for Vítězné Náměstí Redesign in April

The Prague City Council has approved the dates for the launch of an international urban planning competition for the redesign of Vítězné Náměstí in Prague 6. The competition will address the design of public spaces and complex transport connections in one of the biggest squares in Prague, and will be launched by IPR Prague on April 15th, 2018. Keep your eyes on our website for details.

Read more about the project here.

Prague Tomorrow? New Construction Projects Showcased at CAMP

The Prague Tomorrow? exhibition at CAMP showcases dozens of construction projects that, if implemented, will change the face of Prague significantly in the coming years – projects of various sizes, in various locations, and in various stages of development, from the first ideas, through projects in the design and planning process, to projects nearing completion. The list of new buildings is not exhaustive, but presents a careful selection of projects whose final outcome will be influenced by a variety of circumstances. You can visit the exhibition at CAMP until the end of April.

Take a look at the photos from the exhibition opening.

More information about the projects can be found here (in Czech).

Vienna Days

IPR Prague will take part in two days of workshops and discussions sponsored by the Vienna Office of International Relations to foster knowledge exchange on current topics that are relevant to both cities, including smart city initiatives, public space planning, public art, the sharing economy, and social housing.

Charles Square Revitalization: Second Workshop

In April, IPR will host the second workshop for the Charles Square revitalization. Each of the five short-listed architectural teams will present the first draft of their concepts to the evaluation committee, experts and other stakeholders, who will give them feedback and recommendations for the next stage of concept development. The teams will then have the chance to incorporate this feedback before they are asked to present their second iterations at the third workshop, to be held in June.

reSITE 2018 Highlights

Jeanne Gang, Michel Rojkind and Reinier de Graaf are among the confirmed speakers for reSITE 2018, the annual international forum held in Prague which showcases better solutions for our urbanized world. The seventh edition of reSITE will focus on the future of housing and housing of the future.

“Housing is different than other types of development because it's intensely personal and always so closely tied to our well-being and quality of life in the city. The cost of living has become one of the most pressing puzzles of our generation across the globe and inequality poses considerable challenges for city leaders, investors, planners and architects to design a city that works for everyone."
– Martin Barry, Chairman of reSITE

reSITE 2018, which is known for being a highly interactive architecture and urbanism event, will present 50 international speakers from 30 countries and will be curated by Greg Lindsay. Over 1000 attendees are expected at the event, which will gather architects, planners, bottom-up innovators and municipal and private sector leaders on June 14–15, 2018 at Prague’s Forum Karlin. Learn more and register at reSITE.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

What would the ultimate child-friendly city look like?

In this edition of our international newsletter, we would like to inspire you with the Guardian's look at what some cities are doing to make life better for our youngest city-dwellers.

What components would your ultimate child-friendly city include? Which initiatives is your city currently working on to make it a better place to play, grow, and learn?

photo: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/28/child-friendly-city-indoors-playing-healthy-sociable-outdoors#img-8

CONTACT US

Have any thoughts on this? Want to give us feedback or suggest improvements?

Please contact us at international@ipr.praha.eu.

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Prague Institute of Planning and Development · Vyšehradská 57 · Prague 12800 · Czech Republic