Abstract

The housing estate is perceived to be one of the main symbols of the socialist regime in the former Eastern Bloc. Immediately after the Velvet Revolution, housing estates were to some extent rejected by the general public as well as neglected in spatial planning and policies. At the same time, Prague’s housing estates contained more than 40% of the city’s population, thus representing the most important part of the built environment within the city. The main aims of this chapter are to evaluate the specific development of Prague’s housing estates in the second half of the twentieth century, and then to explore the finer details of their inherent socio-spatial differentiation. The role of state and local housing policy is evaluated as the crucial factor in the current and future development of housing estates. The results are similar to those for many other CEE cities, and confirm that the transformation period had little impact on social structures within these residential areas and that the social mix sustains the main attribute of Prague’s housing estates. New housing construction and ethnic differentiation are the most important processes to have changed the social environment of housing estates in Prague during the post-transformation period.

Highlights

  • Housing estates represent an integral part of the physical and social environment in cities, towns and even small villages within the whole of Czechia

  • Czech housing estates comprise huge settlements of panel apartment houses that constitute a considerable part of the urban housing stock on the one hand, and solitary houses on the peripheries of small villages on the other

  • While the transformation period was typified by top-down development, contemporary changes in the housing estate environment are more spontaneous and market-driven

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Summary

15.1 Introduction

Housing estates (sídliště) represent an integral part of the physical and social environment in cities, towns and even small villages within the whole of Czechia. The symbols of the previous era may have disappeared from public space almost immediately after the revolution, but housing estates are still one of the most prominent structures in Czech cities (Novotná 2010) Today, they comprise approximately one-third of the housing stock in Czechia and more than 40% of that in Prague. We intend to discuss the impact of changing state and city policies on the social structure of residents of housing estates, and its spatial differentiation. To this end, three periods of housing estate development are evaluated in the text.

15.2 History of Housing Estates in Prague
15.3 Development of Socio-Spatial Structure Within Socialist Housing Estates
15.4 Transformation Period
15.5 Post-transformation Development
Findings
15.6 Conclusion and Discussion of Future Developments

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