Urban and architectural quality and sustainability

VSB Technical University of Ostrava organized within the projects Partnership for Czech Brownfields together with the project TIMBRE a seminar on

"Urban and architectural quality and sustainability of projects regeneration",

which took place at the Institute of Geonics AS CR, vvi, Ostrava - Poruba, Studentská 1768, 708 00, on 11th & 12th October 2012.

The seminar was designed for young academics and university students, who are interested in the issue of brownfields, as well as partners and collaborating organizations of the Partnership for Czech Brownfields and TIMBRE project in the Czech Republic.

Report on the event

The workshop was organised by the TIMBRE project and the Technical University of Ostrava, project Partnership for Czech Brownfields (managed by Ass. Prof. Barbara Vojvodíková). The workshop took place in the conference room of the Institute of Geonics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Ostrava and was divided into two parts:

1. The first day was devoted to thematic lectures of experts on sustainability of brownfields regeneration projects that was followed by discussions round tables on prioritisation of brownfields and links between culture and brownfields;
2. The second day was more focused on applications of knowledge on regeneration in praxis from both the points of view of students and experts from decision sphere.

Day one (October 11, 2012): The workshop had been started with a lecture given by Michal Šourek from MS Architects Company on the topic "Urban regeneration and sustainability". It was followed by Boštjan Cotič from the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia who introduced Slovenian experiences with brownfield regeneration projects and specifities of regeneration strategies in the wider contexts of his country. The next speaker was Timbre coordinator Stephan Bartke from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ from Leipzig (Germany) who concentrated in his speech on sustainability of regeneration projects in Europe and its tailoring. Before noon, the programme was finished with a lecture of Irena Smolová and Zdenek Szczyrba from Palacký University in Olomouc (Czech Republic). They presented issues linked to opencast mining areas and their importance for landscape research. The afternoon programme was devoted to discussions on preliminary results of WP3 of the TIMBRE project on prioritisation of brownfields. The discussion was led by Petr Klusáček and Stanislav Martinát from the Institute of Geonics. Discussions also focused on links between regeneration of brownfields and cultural specifities (and identity). Best practices both from the Czech Republic and other EU countries were presented in this section. Discussions were facilitated by Tereza Chrástková from the City of Brno, Michal Koleček from the Faculty of Art and Design from Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem and Karel Bařinka from DHV Company (all Czech Republic).

Day two (October 12, 2012): The second day of the workshop started with a presentations of works of students on regeneration of brownfields. The students  are involved in the Platform project - Partnership for Czech Brownfields. This part was followed by a lecture of Slovakian experts (Dagmar Petríková and Peter Blaha), who presented details of likely the most famous regeneration project in Slovakia named Eurovea, located in Bratislava. Next, an interesting lecture on brownfield in a part of Ostrava (Hrušov) was held by Daniel Kunc. Inspiring discussion folowed on the lecture of Jana Peterová and Stanislav Endel (both from Technical University of Ostrava), who focused on mitigation actions with regard to brownfields in the Czech Republic. The end of the second day of the event was marked by a contribution of Igor Gargoš and Vít Ruprich from the CzechInvest Agency, who discussed about the comparability and compatibility of brownfield databases that exist in the Czech Republic. A special part of their speech was devoted to the usability of such databases, while working with both public and private investors and towards the preparation of regeneration projects.

In the two days’ workshop on sustainability of brownfields regeneration, more than 80 participants - students, experts from both academia and praxis, both from public and private sectors and NGOs - participated.

Information (in Czech language) and the programme of the seminar can be downloaded here or found with information on previous seminars of the Partnership for Czech Brownfields project here.