SUMMARY 9/2003

Regenerating the "Urban Conservation Area in Hradec Králové"

Through the decades of the 20th century the historical core of the city became (owing among other things to the preceding dramatic turns in structural development relating to the construction of fortresses and "liberating the city from the bonds of fortification walls") a mere anteroom to the country's famous "salon". It remained only the formal geometric centre of the city, while the function of city centre shifted to the left bank of the Elbe, on to the site of the new urban zone. The historical centre of the city turned into a calm section of town, where civic facilities continued to eke out a living and historical buildings showed signs of neglected maintenance. In the 1990s, however, life began gradually to return to this area. The historical centre of the city is thus gaining back its significance and standing as the real centre of the city. Its attractive location draws commercial, cultural and entrepreneurial activities. With the exception of several specific buildings the area has essentially been completely renewed. The historical centre of the city, which is a conservation area, is thus having new demands put on it, demands which historical urban structures oftentimes find difficult to keep pace with.

Data on the inventory of the flats in the country have been provided by the national Censuses, which have been held roughly at regular ten-year intervals. Censuses in the Czech lands were held on December 31, 1910, February 15 1921, and December 31, 1930. There later followed a registration of the population in 1947, which referred to the situation in 1946. The 1921 Census was in terms of its reach based on pre-war practices and on the limited possibilities of the time. The 1930 Census could be referred to as the first "modern" registry of its kind, and in terms of its content came close to the concept of the Registration in 1947 , expressing the state of affairs immediately prior to the Second World War, given the limited amount of flat construction during that time. The inventory of flats made use of houses or buildings and tenant groups (not flats themselves) as statistical housing units. A tenant groups was understood to be a group of persons who at the time of the census were present in the same dwelling; small tenant groups had on average fewer than four inhabitants and large tenant groups, where there were "four or more inhabitants in ten inhabited dwellings". The main reason for using tenant groups rather than flats themselves as a statistical unit was that very many flats did not actually constitute contained dwelling units. Another statistical unit used in the inventory referred to the owners of flats and the heads of the main households.

The Traffic System of the City of Prague in the Territorial Lay-out

The new territorial lay-out in effect for the city of Prague since 2001 pays heed to the principle stating that the proper functioning of a city is based on its traffic system, including the sub-system of personal transportation. The plan reassesses the previous basic system of transportation through its reduction and assigned priority functions to two circuit roads and the connecting radials. This plan is based in principle on a radial-circuit system, in which each of the individual elements through its own specific function has an influence and contributes to a combined effect on the outcome. The basic theory is that the more massive communications should take on a decisive share of the automobile traffic and in this way facilitate any potential regulation of the inner road network.

The circuit road protects the city from through traffic, like a kind of modern-age fortification wall. At the same time it is intended to distribute traffic stemming out of or running into the city through the collector radials linked to the city ring. The city ring following its completion is then intended to become the main regulatory element in the inner-city traffic system. It will have an important protective function for the central zone of the city. In the road system the radials will also have an effect with their collector function.

For the preparation and gradual implementation of the system, specific priorities and areas of responsibility have been established. With the territorial lay-our determined, the state took up responsibility for the construction and administration of the Prague circuit road via the Office of Roads and Highways. The Prague circuit road has thus been incorporated into the network of roads and four-lane highways for automobile traffic in the Czech Republic and has been included into the plan for their construction. All other communications including the Prague circuit network (the city ring and the radials) have remained the responsibility of the city and fall under its budget.