Research, protection and possible re-use of post-war industrial heritage in the Czech Republic

Current professional debate on research and protection of post-war architecture in the Czech Republic has so far paid little attention to industrial, production-technical, and transportation structures. Pre-war industrial architecture has already acquired its place in historiography and monument protection, and we are now noting successful conversions of these buildings, as well as the gradual formulation of re- use strategies. However, buildings from the second half of the 20th century, often architecturally, typologically and technologically very interesting and representing the development of technology industrial efforts of that era, are still on the fringe of professional interest and hardly ever make it on the search list for new potential use. This research sought to trigger a debate on the need to protect the most endangered buildings, as there is still a very small number of cultural monuments, and submitting proposals for the declaration and their entrance onto the cultural monument list remains an effort that to this day produces conflicting results. The research aims to formulate, on a theoretical level, the possibilities of registration, evaluation, protection and subsequent rehabilitation of post-war industrial buildings, which remain a completely neglected topic, thus supporting the interest in maintaining specific industrial identity of this period. The aim is to present the paper on 18th International Congress of TICCIH in Canada 2021 ("Industrial Heritage Reloaded") and thus present doctoral study program Industrial Heritage activities.