“Rabbits” and architectural gems. This is what the construction of Prague housing estates looked like
The housing estates are home to about half a million Praguers. Often seemingly monotonous, but according to experts, each is unique in its own way, whether it is the (un) quality of the building or the architectural value. Some of them, especially Ďáblice, Solidarita or Invalidovna, belong to the top of European settlements. “They are our family silver,” says architecture historian Hana Řepková.
In 1922, Prague was substantially expanded to include a village and, until then, independent cities in the Prague agglomeration. The so-called Greater Prague, the capital of the new republic, was established. This was followed by dynamic development and a rapid increase in population. This part of the Aktuálně.cz series Prague has been a big city for 100 years is dedicated to housing almost half of Prague residents.
This year, it is 65 years since a project called Solidarity in Strašnice began to be built in the Czech capital. According to the design of František Jech, Hanuš Majer and Karel Storch, a space was created which experts consider to be the first housing estate in the capital. Its construction started a process of about forty years, during which more than fifty more were created in Prague – from the experimental Invalidovna in Karlín through the artistically valuable Ďáblice to large projects such as the South Town or the Black Bridge.
At present, over forty percent of the metropolitan population, ie over half a million people, live in predominantly prefabricated housing estates. It is above average in Central Europe. “In large Central European cities, the percentage of people living in housing estates is between 25 and 45 percent. In Eastern European countries it is even higher. In Western Europe, however, only around five percent,” calculates Michal Kohout from the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University. .
Not only in this, the roles of housing estates in the former Eastern bloc and in the West differ. While in Western countries it mostly served as accommodation for the poor, in Czechoslovakia and other communist states it stood within the socialist ideas of a “city for all”.
“In simple terms, they created ghettos for the low-income in the West. In our country, however, it was not much decided whether lawyers, teachers or workers moved to the housing estate,” explains the architect and co-author of the Paneláci project, Michaela Janečková.
And although Prague’s housing estates have their negatives, especially those built in the 1970s and 1980s on the outskirts of the city, some of them, according to experts, belong to the top in Europe. “Prague has the largest concentration of housing estate gems, which are our family silver and should be protected, even on the basis of the Monuments Act,” says Hana Řepková, a careful historian of architecture and expert on the housing estate. (eg the Brno panel housing estate Lesná is a protected monument).
Beauty from the panel
The need to build a number of flats was felt by the capital long before the first housing estate was established. “The housing crisis is not just a matter of the present – it was already during the First Republic. People lived, for example, in wagon colonies, in the cellars of disused buildings, sometimes in the rocks. The socialist and communist state “Describes Janečková.
Despite the alarming shortage of flats, however, Prague lagged behind other cities in building housing estates. “It was underfunded by the regime for a long time. At that time, housing estates were built, for example, in Ostrava, Havířov and other industrial areas,” adds architect Janečková.
However, the mentioned Solidarity only partially describes the idea of a typical Prague housing estate. Unlike the later ones, it was not yet state-planned, it was a cooperative project. For the most part, the houses are built of buildings and structures that preceded later prefabricated systems.
Large prefabricated housing estates began to emerge in Prague in the mid-1950s. The oldest houses made of full-wall panels can be found in the housing estates Herálecká (Zelená Liška) and Antala Staška in Krč and Petřiny. These first housing estates were still being built in close connection with the already built parts of the city, using their transport infrastructure and civic amenities. These include the Invalidovna experimental housing estate, whose hotel house is a registered cultural monument. This is famous, among other things, for its artistically crafted climbing frames. Most outdoor works of art can be found in the Vlasta housing estate in Vršovice from the 1970s.
However, since the mid-1960s, the majority of housing estates have begun to be built on the outskirts of the city behind the original buildings. These include Ďáblice. According to the architects, it pays for the most beautiful in the Czech Republic.
Ďáblice is characteristic, for example, of its large and luxuriously lit glazed vestibules, most of which are decorated with works of art. The local towers follow the style of modern architecture and are inspired by, for example, the Habitat House in Montreal. And there is also a lot of greenery. “Ďáblice embodies the idea of a high-rise garden city. The housing estate stretches for a long kilometer.
No “rabbit houses”. A positive attitude is important, says the historian
However, this can no longer be said of the settlements that the communist regime began to build in Prague in the 1970s and 1980s. In order to fulfill his commitment to build several thousand flats, he began to prioritize quantity over quality. An example of this transformation is the largest domestic housing estate Jižní Město.
“It was a big disappointment. From an architectural point of view, it didn’t work out. The competition in 1966 emphasized a sophisticated concept. But when it started, what was possible was cut off. local center and the construction of the central park did not pass, “describes the architect Janečková.
Even because of this housing estate, prefabricated houses began to be nicknamed “rabbit houses” in Czechoslovakia. Václav Havel marked the South Town with this word during his visit in 1989. According to Řepková, however, the South Town is one of the parts that have undergone the greatest transformation during its existence. “Since the 1990s, facades have been repaired here on the basis of a well-thought-out concept, and the individual districts have acquired their own colors and different character,” he says.
Due to this, the public no longer views the housing estate as “rabbit houses”. This is usually due to more greenery between houses or generally high housing and energy prices. “Housing estates are and will continue to be a very advantageous form of housing, because they are the most economical of space and building transport infrastructure,” says Řepková, adding that it is necessary to look for and highlight their positives in housing estates. Despite the changing public view, however, much of the housing estate is uncertain in the future.
“Unprofessional construction interventions shorten the lifespan of houses, while people’s satisfaction is threatened by ill-considered densification and disruption of services and jobs in favor of mere housing.
Video: The first housing estate in Solidarity, led by the Práci čest cooperative
Solidarity housing estate in Prague ‘s Strašnice Video: Tomáš Cetkovský, Petra Jansová