Czechoslovak Urban and Regional Planning in the 1960s: Eco-friendly Theories vs. Everyday Practise

DOSTALÍK, Jan. Czechoslovak Urban and Regional Planning in the 1960s: Eco-friendly Theories vs. Everyday Practise. In East West Central 02: Re-scaling the Environment - New Landscapes of Design 1960-1980, Zurich, Switzerland. 2014.

Basic information

• Original name: Czechoslovak Urban and Regional Planning in the 1960s: Eco-friendly Theories vs. Everyday Practise
• Name in Czech: Československý urbanismus a územní plánování v 60. letech 20. století: Ekologicky šetrné teorie vs. každodenní praxe
• Authors: DOSTALÍK, Jan (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: East West Central 02: Re-scaling the Environment - New Landscapes of Design 1960-1980, Zurich, Switzerland, 2014.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: Art, architecture, cultural heritage
• Country of publisher: Switzerland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14230/14:00077640
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Keywords in English: Eco-friendly; urban and regional planning; landscape planning; spatial planning; 1960s; utopia; system approach..
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

In the West, the ecological movement was ascendant in the 1960s, when practical as well as utopian solutions to local and global environmental troubles began to appear in architecture and urban planning. The situation was, however, very specific in the Soviet satellite states. In the 1960s, the power of the communist regime was still appreciable in Czechoslovakia (and often anti-nature in character), but it was also a period marked by the loosening of social and political restrictions. These changes were reflected in architecture and urban planning; nature-focused approaches came to the surface. The environmental context of Central European architecture and urbanism of that time, eco-friendly motivations of architects and other spatial planners, and eco-friendly projects—in sum, eco-friendly tendencies—have remained poorly studied and reflected. Were these eco-friendly tendencies really as inconspicuous and marginal as it might seem? What about Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovak authors? Who were they? And what were they trying to promote? The paper tries to answer these questions by introducing some Czechoslovak eco-friendly authors (mainly architects, but also natural scientists and horticulture specialists), significant projects, and theoretical concepts. Through all these, different types of eco-motivations and eco-friendly attitudes are presented. Special attention is paid to the differences between eco-friendly theories and everyday practice with particular focus on changes in the Czech and Slovak landscapes. The paper also briefly describes the relationships with foreign countries, which culminated in 1967 at the UIA conference in Prague. At the end, parallels between this heritage and contemporary spatial planning and concepts of sustainability are considered.