The Working Heritage project emerged as part of the Culture 2000 Programme supported by the European Union. The Research Centre for Industrial Heritage CTU Prague (VCPD) became involved in this project as a partner institution: Prof. Petr Urlich has taken part in project meetings held outside the Czech Republic; the VCPD contributed to the preparation of a CD-Rom containing presentations on individual national projects; and in September 2005 the Working Heritage exhibition was presented as part of the 3rd International Biennial – Vestiges of Industry 2005 in Prague.

The original Working Heritage exhibition focuses on a selection of five sites in England, France, Italy and Spain. The selected sites represent examples that are noteworthy for their positive contribution to the field in terms of the method of industrial heritage conservation that was used and from the perspective of the life of local communities. The exhibition thus provides an overview of a variety of approaches to the conservation and treatment of industrial heritage, a heritage particularly unique in character. The selected examples include: the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, various industrial enterprises in Terni, and the formal textile plants in Roubaix and Schio and La Colonia Güell. The VCPD, which as part of the Working Heritage project presented itself on an accompanying CD-Rom, contributed panels on six Prague projects at the exhibition – the conversion of the Herget brickworks, the Sova Mills and other examples from the neighbourhoods of Karlín and Holešovice. The CD-Rom is available for viewing at the VCPD. This project helped the development of ties between the VCPD and contacts outside the Czech Republic and to the presentation of Czech industrial architecture at the international level.

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