A tour of Wenceslas Square
with Josef Vomáčka
Wenceslas Square – what is the role of centre today
- Thursday Aug 5 / 18:00, Palác U Stýblů
Wenceslaus Square and many of its buildings are an interesting example of the Europe-wide trend towards the changing role of urban downtowns. For many easily analysed reasons, urban centres are witnessing an exodus of inhabitants and jobs, new forms of entertainment, changes traffic and transport, and the suppression of previous attractions. We will compare four large European boulevards (Madrid’s Gran Via, Paris’s Champs-Élysées, Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, Wenceslaus Square) with an eye towards their evolution over the past 20 years – an evolution whose results are nearly identical. We will tour the remarkable Stýblo Palace – an example of the dominant construction phase in the city centre – followed by the Lucerna/U Nováků complex as an example of a vibrant survivor of the centre’s original subculture.
Josef Vomáčka is an independent journalist with a focus on urbanism, architecture and public space. He is also interested in film and organizes large-scale exhibitions of contemporary art.
For the past several years, his work has appeared on Czech Radio and Czech Television and in Ateliér and Architekt magazines, more recently in Euro and Reflex magazines and in the Lidové noviny newspaper. He leads tours of modern architecture in Central Europe and organizes similar tours in Prague and Central Bohemia.
/tour in Czech language/