FROM HISTORIC VILLAGE TO PUBLIC PARK

Created by SKULL studio, Husuv Park in Prague now has an environmentally friendly awareness that makes for a fun day out. Historically, the Hussite Revolution Park in Cakovice used to be the location of a village green with a lake, which was drained and turned into a park during the First Czechoslovak Republic. Houses that lined the original lake were demolished, leaving the remainders of roof gables behind, until recent reconstruction of the park.

Landscaping studio Land05 designed the new renovation of the park, headed by Martina Forejtova. SKULL studio helped design the perimeter wall on the southern edge of the park. The wall, while sounding like a simple element, is a dynamic three-dimensional brick art piece with overlapping shapes and angles called the Superpower Wall that points down to a decorative pool. The wall carries the theme of transformation throughout the park’s new elements.

The gabled roof contours were still visible in the perimeter walls of the original park, which inspired the diagonal line motif present in the new decorative wall. “It’s a memento of what is no longer here, which nevertheless leaves its imprint on the place and time,” said the creator of the Superpower Wall, sculptor Matej Hajek from SKULL studio.

The wall may look simple and classical in its building materials, but it is finished with a nanotech coating. It also has photocatalytic properties to clean the air of the park through light. This activates its components while avoiding waste substances or the use of chemicals. The surface of the wall is finished with titanium dioxide. Together with UV radiation, it can liquidate several kilograms of harmful substances per year per square meter of wall surface.

This earth-cleaning technology was developed by Czech scientists from the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry. “The invisible plays a dual role here,” Hajek explained.

“On one hand, there’s the nanotechnological coating, which depends on sunlight in order to function. In the other is memory, fragments of recollections that exist only in our imagination. What is essential is not what we see, but precisely that which escapes our vision.”

The water feature below the wall was designed by XTOPIX studio. The dark surface is reminiscent in its colour of the bed of the former lake. The rest of the park retains green space and walkways for pedestrians. It also includes wildflower plantings and a grid of planted trees that are protected by decorative wood structures.

Images Bet Orten via Inhabitat