Book „The Vedute of Prague“ describes the development of Prague cityscape in the period of last 5 centuries and emphasizes future possible scenarios how the city composition could be continuously developed in the 21st century,“ comments the content of the book Roman Koucký, the co-author of the book and the chief of the Metropolitan plan office, that prepares new urban plan of Prague, called Metropolitan plan.
The overall visual composition of the city forms a significant part of its identity and the collective mental “city image”. The layered and diverse composition of the city “from medieval times up to now” is, as emphasized in the book’s first chapter, the reason for Prague’s inscription in the prestigious UNESCO Register of World Cultural Heritage. The second chapter describes how it is not only possible but indeed necessary to read the contemporary city/metropolis, and what to emphasis in supplementing its composition. The third chapter is a brief history of the formulation of Prague’s historic urban landscape, particularly in the turbulent 20th century, and an outline of a possible solution for its further development based on the Metropolitan Plan. It describes how it is possible to supplement the historically layered city with a contemporary cultural layer precisely as assumed in the wording of the UNESCO inscription from 1992.
