VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages
Abstract
Otakar II promoted the construction of more than fifty new towns in the twenty-five years of his reign between 1253 and 1278. Forty-six of them are located in the present-day Czech Republic and are the subject of this research.
The medieval city has left us many lessons in town planning that are still relevant today. In this work, based on the current state of the cities founded by Otakar II, and on a series of historical plans, we study the patterns of their design, the logics of their settlement, the territorial articulation or the strategic vision of their location. All these issues have a lot to do with its heritage values. Their systematic analysis may lead to further research and shed light on possible future interventions. It simultaneously addresses territorial and local scales, studies the urban form and its architecture, looks at the urban elements that make up the fabric and recognises their relationship with the territory. The simple idea that all these foundations respond to an idea of territorial control and structuring, based on the control of the main river axes and border crossings, is very interesting and up to date. This work aims to highlight this extraordinary heritage value and contribute to finding guidelines for the urban improvement of these cities and to open up new lines of work for their urban improvement based on their cultural and artistic legacy: to make proposals based on an intense knowledge of the site and the lessons of the past.
Professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, in the Town and Country Planning Department, from 1994. Coauthor of the book “The old town of Barcelona. A past with a future”, leaded by Joan Busquets (2003). Author of the heritage plan of Reus, including architecture, urban and natural elements (2000). Leading the research line about the old town of Barcelona, with the title “Neurons in capillary urbanity. An interpretation of the construction of the Old City of Barcelona from the relationships between its parts and its spaces”.
Jordi Franquesa is professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, in the Town and Country Planning Department, from 1996. PhD in Architecture and Master in Urbanism. He has been teaching urban matters at DUOT-UPC in Barcelona for more than 25 years. Extraordinary PhD award, with a thesis about heritage in Catalonia of Garden Cities, and also author of the heritage plan of Reus, including architecture, urban and natural elements (2000).
Sandra Jiménez is graduated in Building Engineering from the University of the Balearic Islands in 2013 and in Architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture in 2020 where her Final Degree work was “The back streets of Manhattan” which dealed with the New York urban heritage. She has collaborated as an assistant in the workshop “Atlas of the Czech Foundations of King Otokar II” in 2022. Currently studying the master’s degree in Urban Regeneration.