Industrial heritage is part of the cultural heritage of any civilised society. It is formed of the remains of the industrial era, an important stage of development of our society, going back to approximately the first quarter of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. The structural evidence is mostly composed of the diverse buildings and workshops of factories and storages, but also transport, and especially railway structures. They can be often found in poor condition and unused in cities and villages, but also in former industrial lands, for which the term “brownfield” is commonly used.
The gradually disappearing building funds and the knowledge of the industrial era ought to be conserved for the future generations. One of the possibilities of conservation is being listed in the list of cultural heritage, either on a national level or on the list of the world cultural and natural heritage sites of UNESCO. Even our industrial heritage has its protected representatives. Another active and long-term verified way of conserving the industrial heritage is using the original industrial objects for new and mostly non-manufacturing purposes. At the Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU, it is prof. Tomáš Šenberger and associate professor Lenka Popelová, Ph.D who focus on the conservation of industrial heritage. Within the Design Studio practice, students design variants of possible usage of former industrial structures and during their doctoral studies, they then work on their detailed documentation, description and evaluation.