Restoration of Krále Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Řevnice
An architectural competition in the form of a summer reflection. In August 2015, Zuzana Ferencová, Pavel Pácalt and Vendula Krausová and I spent some time in front gardens, embankments and cafés thinking about how to restore the character and generosity of the main public space in Rivnik, while spicing it up with a touch of the atmosphere of the original village square.
We've set the scene for everyday life and holidays. A space that wakes up every day, lights up, fills with movement, and then falls silent again in the evening. A place for everyday planned and fleeting meetings, sharing, stopping, getting to know and experiencing. A full-fledged square, naturally the most important public space of the city, dignified and representative, unique. A centre for cultural, social, sporting and political events, for sharing emotions.
We understand the square in its constant fluidity, transience and change. We imagine here the flowering linden trees as well as their bare silhouettes growing out of the fallen leaves. A space both empty and completely populated. Quietly winter and bustlingly summer. Melancholic, under grey clouds, and full of joy and cheer, lit up by New Year's fireworks. A place with a changeable atmosphere, but a clear and solid character.
We have uncovered the memory of a place. We started from a clear spatial demarcation that has persisted for centuries. We have restored the square to its unity - one square, one surface, but a place for many activities and events. We proposed to restore and add a torso of trees, resisting the temptation to conceive of the square as a park. We have added a little something of the village in a decorous way - in the front gardens we have preserved the natural blending of the private and the public; and in the centre of the square we have enriched it with a candelabrum that combines a purely utilitarian function with the aesthetics of a characteristic village or small-town maypole. We have thus complemented the fountain and the monument, newly liberated as two imaginary fixed points in the centre of all the action. Just around the corner is the church tower, more imagined than seen, but also belonging to the square.
