Long-term Development and Current Socio-Spatial Differentiation of Housing Estates in Prague, Czechia

Abstract

The housing estate is perceived to be one of the main symbols of the socialist regime in the former Eastern Bloc. Immediately after the Velvet Revolution, housing estates were to some extent rejected by the general public as well as neglected in spatial planning and policies. At the same time, Prague's housing estates contained more than 40% of the city's population, thus representing the most important part of the built environment within the city. The main aims of this chapter are to evaluate the specific development of Prague's housing estates in the second half of the twentieth century, and then to explore the finer details of their inherent socio-spatial differentiation. The role of state and local housing policy is evaluated as the crucial factor in the current and future development of housing estates. The results are similar to those for many other CEE cities, and confirm that the transformation period had little impact on social structures within these residential areas and that the social mix sustains the main attribute of Prague's housing estates. New housing construction and ethnic differentiation are the most important processes to have changed the social environment of housing estates in Prague during the post-transformation period.

Post-socialist Development and Rehabilitation of Large Housing Estates in Central and Eastern Europe: A Review

“…The project resulted not only in raised technical quality of prefabricated buildings, but also in raised quality of life, making JižníMěsto both appealing and affordable location, especially for couples with children, which contributed to preserving the social mix and slowing down the process of demographic aging. Yet, due to low levels of socio-spatial disparity in Prague, policies aimed at large regeneration projects are not the city's top priority anymore and changes in the socialist housing estates are nowadays market-driven [44].…”

Beyond the decay? Positive patterns in the development of a large housing estate: the case of Olechów-Janów district in Łódź, Poland

“…However, Olechow-Janow was well positioned to be the site of major development projects even in this 'messy' context. Like in some other cities in the CEE, the pre-definition of big chunks of land for housing development (Ouředníček, Špačková and Pospíšilová 2018), open spaces (Szafrańska 2016) as well as the availability of infrastructure stimulated big-scale development rather then chaotic infill development characteristic in many other districts.…”

“…In addition, characteristics of the estates such as types of construction, levels of renovations, energy efficiency and location play an important role in their evaluation (Kovács, Egedy and Szabó 2018). For instance, some estates in Bucharest are considered to be currently undergoing a 'minor renaissance' (Marin and Chelcea 2018), while in Sofia (Stanilov 2007) or Prague many estates preserved their social-mix and underwent expansion post-1989 as a result of developers being attracted to housing estates' provision of building plots, good transportation links to the city centre, and pre-existing technical and social infrastructure (Ouředníček, Špačková and Pospíšilová 2018).…”

The impact of social structure and physical characteristics on housing estate renovation in postsocialist cities: Cases of Vilnius and Budapest

“…In most cases, there was no strategy behind the actual developments, different activities ran parallel (Warchalska-Troll, 2013). The general trend is the lack of comprehensive HEdevelopment policy (Ouředníček, Špačková, & Pospíšilová, 2018). Though some EU-support became available in the 2010s, the renovation of housing estates has mainly remained a bottom-up process in the postsocialist cities.…”