Student participiants:
Kamil Parzychowski, Bernard Ambroziewicz, Natalia Serafin, Agnieszka Cieszanowska, Zöldi Sára, Marek Kratochvíl, Markéta Nováková,
Matus Kurdel, Zuzana Lisonova, Marta Jaworska, Aleksandra Kamusińska
Location: Rusałka Lake- Dog playground
The area around the lake has long been used for dog walking. At the north shore of Rusalka, a dog playground was set up in the vicinity of the car park at Golecinska Street. Entrance the area is hidden between the trees, which is why it is not always noticeable by people visiting the place for the first time. According to regulations, dogs can run without a muzzle, except for breeds considered aggressive, their hybrids and other dogs posing risk to their environment. The playpen brings together a community of people regularly visiting this place, arranging meetings also via their group on Facebook. The playground is used throughout the year.
NEEDS
During consultation meetings conducted on the premises of the playground, and conversations on facebook groups, it was agreed that the place should primarily maintain its current character, provide convenient and safe conditions for activity, training and rest, respond to the needs of closeness between dog owners and their pupils and encourage integration the dog lovers’ community.
Most people reach the playpen with their pets from further districts of the city. It is advisable to create a roof that provides shelter during heavy rain or sun, but at the same time to avoid creating an attractive spot for unwanted visitors after dark. On the dog playpen there is no possibility of hanging clothes or placing belongings out of the reach of dogs. Owners, therefore, suggested to create an element that would allow storage of equipment, toys and clothes, preferably in a covered and rain-proof place (in the form of shelves, boxes or a stand, a hanger, a seat-chest, etc.).
People who took part in the consultations emphasised that they like this place and are keen to use it. Its main advantage is the shape, forest and intimate character with trees and shrubs that allows dogs to be active also in shade, as well as headgates at the entrances. It was postulated to preserve trees and shrubs in the playpen, regularly mow the grass to a higher height to reduce the amount of dust, keeping the central section of the area intact for dog’s free play and set waste bins outside the pen. Another important postulate was illuminating the path to the playpen, which would allow longer use also in autumn and winter.
Those who participated in the consultations had differing opinions on the separation of the playpen into two parts and the creation of a separate, smaller area for young, smaller or weaker dogs.
FINAL RESULTS
The group wanted to maintain current natural character and atmosphere of the place. They made a decision at the begining of design process about using just natural wood and focus on trying to create some obstacles for dogs and some functional parts to the owners. The design for playground cames from nature, group analyzed the site deeply and grabbed its most characteristic spieces like the curvy shapes of the sand and the grass. The material was logs of wood and tree trunks which the group got for free from the land owner. The design takes the advantage of the wide variety of choosen materials and tries to find the best combination of different size of trunks and logs. Project has linear composition and there are many type of connections of elements- some of them comes from the similar diameters some of them comes from similar curvyness or texture. Students let the users of the place to discover funcionallity of the installation, they for sure will find a lot of sitting or laying places, obstacles for the dogs, and table as well. The concept placed the nature exactly to the first place and let it to lead our hand to intervent.
Tutor: 2021 architekti- Juraj Haris + Filip Ponechal
Architects from Slovakia
The 2021 architekti office has been established in 2012 in Bratislava by Peter Lényi, Ondrej Marko, and Marian Lucký. The office focuses mainly on executing public buildings, and designs in the public space which have a wider social character.The ambition of the office is to shape the way forward in terms of our perception of architecture and everyday environments. Our architects seek this in two ways: participating in contests declared by public investors and organising contests themselves.Apart from design work in strongly differentiated scales, the architects willingly participate in workshops and self-build urban actions. Their shelves at the office feature, apart from organizers full of design documents and architecture literature, also drills, polishing machines, and containers full of bolts.