Eva Jiřičná: With regard to the increasing number of cars, we are destroying cities

Brno - The calculation that in the future there will be more and more cars and therefore it is necessary to build accordingly, according to architect Eva Jiřičná, destroys cities. She said this yesterday at a discussion about architecture and the intention to construct the Edison Center in Brno. She reminded that in the Czech Republic, a builder who does not account for parking will not obtain a permit. In London, it is the opposite today, she noted.
The trend of building more and more parking spaces in buildings focused on other purposes, according to her, corresponds to the demand that a person is to arrive at a building by car, park, take the elevator to a place, shop, and leave. "It is the city's duty, and it must be so in the future, that public transport will increase while private transport will decrease; otherwise, there will be no cities in the future," she stated.
Architect Jaroslav Dokoupil countered her, whose company is currently known in Brno for the study of building garages under the Vegetable Market in the city center. According to Dokoupil, public transport can serve everyone who travels to city centers for work, education, shopping, and entertainment. "And if it is not good enough for them, they can take a taxi. But there is the question of residents," he said. If we want people to live in city centers, we must create conditions for them, including parking.
Jiřičná was not convinced. She stated that in central London, where she lives, people indeed get by without cars. "You are part of a certain group that shares a certain number of cars," she described. She compared the discussion to debates about smoking, in which it is said that it is impossible to ban it (in restaurants). However, as soon as lawmakers decide to do so, it is possible.
She also reminded of the pre-November period, when "no one had a car." "We all walked to school, to work, to shop, to swim, I really have no problem with that," she pointed out.
In Brno, there was a discussion about the Edison Center, which the Dutch company Cere Invest wants to build at the corner of Koliště and Cejl streets. The object is to have six parking levels, four of which are underground, plus two floors of a shopping gallery, three administrative floors, and two residential floors. Architects discussed the intention at the request of the city council and the Forum for Architecture and Media 4AM, because the project does not comply with the zoning plan. The so-called floor area index exceeds the limit three times.
The initiators of the discussion also wanted to find out whether the so-called organic architecture of the object fits into the city center; in the model, the Edison Center looks like several boxes placed in an L-shape, on top of which a caterpillar rests. No one objected to the appearance of the building. "From a heritage point of view, there is no problem with the shape," said Roman Čerbák from the National Heritage Institute in Brno.