02. Acrobate
published at 31/01/2022
The human condition is obsessed with a search for balance, requiring that we move forward in our lives like acrobats. The ideal garden asks its visitors to understand that balance is a myth, a never-ending search. A disquieting row of cypresses leaning ominously over the path creates an initial impression of unease, with no turning back possible. It dissipates as you make your way further into the garden, ending up in an open space: a trio of fruit trees and a carpet of harmonious white flowers. Pomegranate trees overhang asters and anemones, sneezewort and shimmering sage. But this paradise is no more than illusion. It is seen like a painting, through frames of varying sizes and heights. Such distancing helps us understand how much we still seesaw between our fears and our joys. Nonetheless, they are reconciled in a water mirror, spilling into the pool and dissolving to finally become the reflection of all the garden’s features.
designeRS
Berenika PILAROVA, Kateřina SHRBENA, Tereza SLADKA, Václav SUCHAN and David SMID, students
Vladimír SITTA, landscaper, professor, head of the landscape architecture department
CZECH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE, FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
CZECH REPUBLIC
Berenika Pilařová
"I am a student of the program Landscape architecture at the Faculty of Architecture in Prague. This school provided me the opportunity to work on many different types of projects on various scales. It helped me realize what I enjoy the most and what I want to do in the future. I’m passionate about bringing greenery into cities, forming high quality public spaces where there is space for both - people and nature. I've always loved roaming the countryside, exploring new paths and finding hidden nooks of meadows. It's a source of inspiration for me. I would like to create spaces that inspire others in the same way."
Kateřina Shrbená
"Landscape architecture student at the Czech Technical University in Prague, passionate observer of surroundings, nuance seeker, holiday countryside pilgrim, leisure-time researcher of maps, self-taught dressmaker and vague space enthusiast who appreciates working in inspiring teams such as the one with my colleagues listed on this page. What I like about my field of study is the chance to influence cultural and natural environment positively while making links between the two spheres."
Tereza Sladká
"Me and my teammates are students of the Faculty of Architecture in Prague and we are studying it for past four years. I’m very fascinated by landscape architecture discipline, how many directions it opens and how many things it combines. It depends on each of us which direction we’ll go, it offers us a lot of choices. I like it because it isn’t monotonous but it is very creative. I’m the most interested in landscape on a large scale which is currently really suffering in our country. Restoration of forests, draws, streams, ponds, historical routes, generally, I want to work on projects which can help return at least some fragments of landscape back. I would like to take part in landscape revitalizations because I think it’s necessary and at the same time wonderful."
Václav Suchan
"Student of landscaping from Prague, explorer of new horizons, diver in forests, lover of urban structures, listener of thousands of atmospheres, passionate about forgotten places where time stood still, keen on revealing different layers of places surrounding us. Historical memory, natural changes, human’s attitude, the past time imprinted into the landscape. Harmonizing human beings and nature, cities and countryside, current needs and responsibility. So many aspects why landscape architecture interests me that much and why I see a big sense in it."
David Šmíd
"Studying landscape architecture at FA CTU opened up new horizons for me. The variety of subjects we can study, ranging from technology to nature and art, brings us the ability to focus on our conception of landscape architecture. We are learning how to restore the original spirit of the place and stabilize the habitat to preserve it for future generations. I believe that what we have learned may play a vital role in preventing the total destabilization of the ecosystems around us. For my team, the theme of perfection and ideal does not lie in harmonious compositions, but we try to mirror the natural world around us. In which perfection is represented by natural balance. Our garden Acrobate is supposed to represent this ancient cycle of finding balance, which is constantly going on, and all of us are part of it."
