The publication presents an overview of selected industriál buildings and sites that were adapted to new uses between 2005 and 2015 and are characteristic for this period, including even controversial approaches. The selection was based on a comparison of materials in the database created for Industrial Topography of the Czech Republic and considers the results of a survey conducted by the Research Centre for Industrial Heritage of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University.

Every conversion entails a change and an adaptation to a different function, an intervention into the integrity of a structure already marked by the demise of its original function. Architecture can be both the medium by which this change is executed and by which the qualities that can be tied in with are preserved, and above all the medium by which to articulate new ambitions or, of course, by which to petrify the limitations to further development imposed by the current era.

The publication represents an outcome of the project An Industrial Topography of the Czech Republic – Adapted New Uses of Industrial Heritage as a Part of National and Cultural Identity supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic under its NAKI (National and Cultural Identity) Applied Research Programme (DF11P01OVV016) is published to coincide with an exhibition of the same name and with the support of Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, the Vestiges of Industry Platform, and the Technical Monuments Committee of the Czech Chamber of Certified Engineers and Technicians and the Czech Union of Civil Engineers.

Benjamin Fragner – Vladislava Valchářová, Industrial Topography / The Architecture of Conversion, Czech Republic 2005–2015, Prague 2014.

216 pages; Czech/English; 334 color images and plans; ISBN 978-80-01-05592-2 / authors Benjamin Fragner, Vladislava Valchářová / contributing editorial work Jan Zikmund, Lukáš Beran, Tomáš Skřivan, Petr Vorlík, Iva Dvořáková, Tomáš Krajčinovský, Anna Štefánková / proofreading Hana Hlušičková / scientific review Pavel Halík, Svatopluk Zídek / translation Robin Cassling / graphic design Jan Forejt / dtp Formall / print HRG Litomyšl / published by the Research Centre for Industrial Heritage FA CTU Prague to coincide with an exhibition of the same name and with the support of Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, the Vestiges of Industry Platform, and the Technical Monuments Committee of the Czech Chamber of Certified Engineers and Technicians and the Czech Union of Civil Engineers

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