Participatory Planning Office, Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava

From November 2019 to September 2022, I was the director of a newly established participatory planning office at the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava (MIB). The Institute is a young organization that has no parallels in Slovakia. It is supposed to be a place of conceptual city planning, a place where cross-sectional and interdisciplinary work is done inside and outside. The challenges of urban planning, whether it is the climate crisis, the impact of technology on society, increasing social inequalities in society or the future of democracy today require this type of cooperation. The truth is that, for various reasons, this method of cooperation has been more of a theory than a practice in Slovakia.

Revitalization of the former Matej Bella school, Zvolen - Sekier

In June 2018, representatives of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region presented a plan for further use of the building of the former 8-year-old Matej Bel School on Okružná Street in the Sekier housing estate. This is a pilot project dealing with deprived buildings owned by the region. The BBSK intends to revitalize the building, including public spaces adjacent to other civic amenities (post office, kindergarten, rectory, church). In collaboration with Punkt, the BBSK launched a process of long-term revitalization in a participatory form, in discussions with the public, residents, entrepreneurs and potential investors who would like to implement their ideas in the building.

Palacky street, more than a shortcut, Pardubice

The aim of revitalization of the Palacký street was, besides improving technical and aesthetic condition of the public space, also to change behavior of people by changing the character of the space by activating its economic, cultural and social potential. An international, interdisciplinary team of professionals has created a conceptual study of the most important street in the city of Pardubice through a participative process combined with design thinking,

Revitalization of Dvorakovo Nabrezi - Na Frantisku

The aim of the study is to revitalize this bank of the Vltava river and to bring back its status among the places that we choose as a pleasant and safe way to commute to work, for past-time activities or for unveiling the many layers of its extremely rich, local history. The growing numbers of key, individual investments of local actors and stakeholders became the catalyst for the Institute of Planning and Development to conduct a conceptual and coordinated study. The actors involved were property owners, property managers, attached institutions and the public - all of them becoming partners while formulating the vision for the riverbank. This conceptual study will become a base for the coordination of future individual investment in the private properties and attached public spaces.