Petra Malinská

Petra Malinská (*2000) studied Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences at TU Delft (MSc cum laude) and Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague (Ing. arch.). Her master’s thesis at TU Delft addressed the adaptation of the Masaryk Barracks in Pardubice and received the Circularity in the Built Environment Graduation Award in 2025. Her diploma thesis at CTU, Thresholds of Care, explored care and ageing and became the basis for her article on research by design in environmental gerontology. Since 2026 she has been a doctoral student at UMPRUM in the programme Theory and History of Modern and Contemporary Art, while also studying Anthropological Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University.

She is interested in the relations between space, everyday life and society, especially public space, care, ageing and the adaptation of existing buildings. She approaches these topics by combining architecture, urbanism and the humanities, and uses ethnography, drawing and design as ways of knowing. She is co-author of an article on the typification of preschools in post-war Czechoslovakia and writes on public space, care and contemporary architecture for the journal ASB. Since 2024, she has worked as an architect in the collective collcoll, contributing to projects at various scales.

Malinská, P. (2026). Thresholds of care: Research by design as a mode of inquiry in environmental gerontology. Journal of Aging and Environment, advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/26892618.2026.2753174

Malinská, P., & Hrubeš, J. (2026). Typification of preschools in post-war Czechoslovakia: Prague housing estates case study. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Urban Design and Planning, 179(1), 58-68. https://doi.org/10.1680/jurdp.25.00037

Conceived, Perceived and Lived Space: Forms of Care in Prague's Public Space

In my project, I study how care is planned, practised and lived in Prague’s public space. I understand care as a continuum of care and uncare that includes relations between humans and more-than-human actors, from maintenance and repair to everyday gestures. I use Lefebvre’s triad of conceived, perceived and lived space as three perspectives. I follow care in planning and heritage documents, in observable practices and in the experiences of those who use and manage a place.

The concept of care is often criticised as overused and emptied of meaning, so I begin with a critical review that defines what care refers to in research on public space. The empirical part is an ethnography of the Old Town, a touristified historic centre with intensive heritage protection, where the literature assumes a lack of care. I examine this assumption through walks, observation, interviews, mental maps and drawing, combined with spatial analysis. In this way, I aim to explore the concept of care and to understand how public space is cared for even where power, tourism and commodification are concentrated.