DISCUSSION
What do you think about citizen-based proposals, such as city initiatives? Tim (ZUS): Not sure about this campaign though it helped the Luchtsingel project. Because as a city you are obliged to realize projects which benefit certain people or certain parts of the city. In Rotterdam, it started a long discussion and a bit of frustration on how to spend public money. People who were not affected or not using the project were asking why should their city pay for it. I’m a bit conflicted on this issue, but I think there are better ways of proposing projects. This might lead to a so-called planning populism. Is there some interest in larger scale pedestrian projects from the studio’s side? Let’s say version 2.0 of Luchtsingel but in the scale of a city? Tim (ZUS): Basically no. Even though the topic of this event is pedestrification, I guess for us is more important the issue of activating local economy. Our immediate surroundings are the main focus point because it might work as an epicentre, which is going to influence all the other surroundings. How does your studio work? You mentioned a lot of unsolicited projects. Tim (ZUS): At the moment we have more commissioned projects, so you might say we work more as a normal studio. But when ZUS was formed 5 years ago, it was rather a workshop than a studio. But ZUS evolved since then, got recognized on the market and receiving more solicited projects. We still want to do BUA (unsolicited) but currently, we develop them as a part of a research. How can Prague take an inspiration from Rotterdam in such projects? Václav (IPR): I hope we can. Our cities don’t have enough experience in realizing temporary projects. So generally there are worries about temporary solutions becoming permanent. But I think in the future will see more of these initiatives in the Czech Republic as well. Tim (ZUS): I don’t think the municipality should initiate such projects, but they can definitely make them happen. So the city should coordinate and mediate the whole process rather than starting it. The surrounding area of your office seems to be vibrant at the moment. But how do you deal with possible decline? Tim (ZUS): Preventing this decrease of people’s interest in this area could be done for example through a housing because I think people truly care and sort of revive their surroundings when they live there. What might also help is diversifying some parts of the area to really specialized objects what people would like to visit. The biggest struggle municipalities have to face is handling temporarily used areas, especially when it comes to the potential of it becoming permanent. What advice, as an architect, would you give them? Tim (ZUS): It is fascinating that the municipality is basically scared of the future success of these temporary projects, but it is definitely understandable. One way of looking at them is as if it was already part of a long-term development. And the key is gaining an insight into the whole process which means flawless communication from both sides.
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