Research projects
Responsible person
Fanta, V.
Responsible team
duration of the project
2025
Annotation
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.