Department of Architectural Heritage Conservation

2025-2027

The proposed three-year project for SGS is based on the dissertation topic of Ing. arch. Mario Barra, "The Role of Heritage Conservation in the Industrial Landscape of the Coal Basins of Northwest Bohemia." The aim of the project is to map existing archival and other sources related to the topic of the North Bohemian coal basins during the research and preparation of the doctoral dissertation (in the area of heritage conservation's response to the topic of the North Bohemian coal basins, discussions on this issue in professional journals - e.g. Zprávy památkové péče, Památky a příroda, or Památková péče: orgán Československé památkové péče, as well as regional press and other sources) and heritage-valuable movable and immovable objects affected by surface brown coal mining in the Most region. These materials are located in various archives in the Czech Republic (National Archive of the Czech Republic, State Regional Archive in Litoměřice), as well as at the workplaces of the National Heritage Institute (general directorate, regional professional workplace in Ústí nad Labem) or in the archives of local and regional governments, state administration, industrial enterprises, etc.; an indispensable source of materials is also the Lobkowicz Archive in Nelahozeves. The aim of the research is not only to confirm the doctoral student's research questions but also to bring the topic of the history of today's brown coal basins closer to the professional and lay public. The doctoral research is planned to be followed by the preparation of a research centre at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, supporting the activities of the Institute of Heritage Conservation and focusing on topics related primarily to the issues of settlement memory and cultural landscape, not only from a heritage perspective but also from a natural, landscape, demographic, social, or historical perspective. Cooperation with other faculties of the Czech Technical University in Prague (Faculty of Civil Engineering - Department of Architecture - research on industrial areas and regions, Faculty of Information Technology - creation of websites, applications, maps, etc.), as well as with the Czech University of Life Sciences (landscape and settlement issues), Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem (history, documentation of landscape and cultural heritage), Charles University (geography, demography), workplaces of the National Heritage Institute (heritage conservation) or the Transformation Centre of the Ústí Region (for possible further use of outputs processed within this research and dissertation) is considered.

Detail

2025

Disciplines of heritage conservation and landscape architecture are closely interconnected in many respects, yet their relationship to the issue of settlement and landscape memory has so far remained outside the mainstream of professional interest. This relationship is crucial for understanding and preserving the cultural identity and historical context of the places we inhabit. The connection between these two fields allows for a comprehensive approach to the protection and restoration of not only individual monuments but also entire landscapes, ensuring their sustainability for future generations. Research on the topic of "settlement and landscape memory" aims to discover new, previously unexplored research topics, as well as to build upon and develop existing projects (e.g., Heritage of Lost Landscapes: Identification, Reconstruction, Accessibility, supported by the MK ČR NAKI II grant (SMK02018DG002), and the project "VISKALIA - Virtual Open-Air Museum of Folk Architecture", supported by the MK ČR NAKI II grant (DG20P02OVV003). The research area of "settlement and landscape memory" covers a range of topics within the Czech Republic alone - displaced and resettled Czech-German borderlands, vanished settlement units in coal basins, military training areas or reservoir sites, vineyard estates in Prague, and many others. It is a research topic that not only connects the disciplines of heritage conservation and landscape architecture but also intersects with many other scientific fields - architectural history, demography, sociology, geography, geoinformatics, and ethnography. At the same time, these are often regionally very specific topics that invite the strengthening of international cooperation in research and the sharing of results between the academic and professional spheres in both European and non-European contexts. Topics presented by doctoral students, or students of other levels of study, will showcase the breadth of research topics on the issue of "settlement and landscape memory" and research methods in individual regions, including the use of modern technologies (Heritage BIM, digital scanning and documentation) in the context of landscape transformation over time and landscape changes with regard to demographic development and climate change. The aim of the first year of the conference is to initiate interdisciplinary dialogue in the area of the interconnectedness of heritage conservation and landscape architecture topics - not only between FA institutes (heritage conservation, landscape architecture, urbanism, spatial planning, and others) or faculties of CTU, but also between individual universities at the national (e.g., UK, ČZU, UJEP) and international levels (Germany, Italy, or other non-European countries). The conference is expected to be attended by representatives of the academic communities of Czech universities, including teachers and doctoral students presenting their scientific research, as well as representatives of state (e.g., MMR ČR / MŽP ČR) and professional public institutions (NPÚ, AOPK ČR, EÚ AVČR, AHMP) as an opportunity to facilitate contacts for students with prominent professionals from practice. Representatives of European and non-European universities and professional institutions will also be invited to the conference to present research projects from their regions, including opportunities for international cooperation. The organization of the conference aims to introduce the researched issues to students of all levels of study from CTU and other universities and offer them the opportunity to engage in research through external collaboration or by announcing topics for doctoral studies. The outputs of the conference and the contacts established there will serve both for organizing further editions of the conference (thematically focused on the research of the topic "settlement and landscape memory" from the perspective of individual scientific disciplines and at the same time examining individual localities in the Czech Republic and worldwide in more detail), as well as for initiating longer-term research projects, including national and international grant support, which are currently being prepared at the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional level within the FA CTU in Prague (Research Center for Settlement and Landscape Memory FA CTU, prepared under the auspices of the Institute of Heritage Conservation FA CTU; project coordinator Ing. arch. M. Barra), for which interdisciplinary and international contact establishment and research collaboration are key.

Detail

2025-2027

2023

2019-2020

The point of the work is to deepen the knowledge of historical kitchens, important but yet not fully appreciated technical monuments, by the light of their functional and structural aspects. The project is aimed on research, documentation and analysis of medieval and early modern kitchen structures in their spatial and constructional aspects on the sample included in the proponent´s thesis "Kitchens in middle Ages and Early modern period". For further documentation in the project will be chosen such kitchens, that are very well preserved or have well preserved some typical or on the contrary uncommon constructional aspect. For selected kitchens existing documentation will be considered. New means of documentation will be chosen according to the type and quality of preserved situation. We suppose geodetical measure (total station), digital 3D model created on the basis of laser scanning (point cloud) and digital textured 3D model created by photogrammetry using digital photography. For at least one chosen situation all methods will be applied to enable a comparison. The output should comprise description, documentation and spatial and constructional analysis of chosen kitchens that will make part of passports of the monuments in question, analysis of their historical development, and will be used in publication of the results of the work (proponents thesis, and some other membres of the team, specialized articles concerning individual objects and the whole together).

Detail

2016-2017

The aim of the project is creating a model documentation and comparaison of the eldest preserved historical heaters and their inner (functionnal) structures with an accent on comparation with younger heaters from the rural social range and with technological facilities focusing on widening knowledge about vanished medieval and early modern heaters.

Detail

2016-2017

The project will seek answers to questions regarding forms of interaction between the then theory of monument conservation and building practice outside Prague at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It will expand and fill in the existing fragmentary knowledge of this issue and, at the same time, it will create conditions for impact assessment of new findings on modern monument conservation. New knowledge will enable to enrich the teaching of monument conservation at FA CTU thus contributing to the improvement of teaching in the area of the treatment of building and urban heritage, it will provide valuable reference material for doctoral thesis of the applicant and it will contribute to strengthening of cultural memory in the surveyed regions.

Detail

2014

The aim of the project is to recover discussion of the importance of the perception of the historical development of the landscape and its relevance to the current structure and operation of the territory. Exploring the development of the preserved detached monuments we obtain a basis for the interpretation of the functionality of the wider community even after the collapse of the settlement in the immediate vicinity. We chose the Černokostelecko region for its unique character, which can be observed stagnation of settlement and the gradual destruction of the settlement pattern.

Detail

2014-2015

In the 20th the 19th century had been the border area Austro-Hungarian monarchy (in the present Romania) colonized by Czech settlers. They settled in the region called Banat, where they founded several villages. Due to the location of these settlements and villages in the middle of deep forests in the southwestern end of the Carpathian massif, which caused significant separation from the surrounding civilization, the people of the Czech villages to this day preserve their culture, language, customs, traditional farming practices in the landscape and vernacular architecture technologies. The whole area, which includes 6 Czech villages (Eibentál, Bígr, Gerník, Rovensko, Svatá Helena and Šumice), was still some exceptions (several ethnographic expeditions in the 60s) outside the interest of Czech building-historians and monument-experts. How however discovered expeditions of students of the Institute of monument conservation of FA CTU, which took place in 2012 and 2013, in the villages are concerned hardly believable architectural values. First of all, there is the possibility of study of a traditional form of architecture that came out 180 years ago from Czech cultural and historical enviroment, but was isolated, respectively in later years under the influence of the Romanian environment. Directly Thus, implementation of historical research of extremely interesting buildings. So far, none of the researchers have not given urban development of the Czech villages - this deficiency, we would like to correct. Another big topic, which is primarily related with that incredible spatial and functional continuity of the area, is the cultural landscape, where we can get to interface with many other disciplines (history of settlemens, historical geography, botany, etc.). The aim of our research is a comprehensive knowledge of settlement components of the Czech villages in Banat, through the building culture, formation of settlements and historical landscape management.

Detail