Our practice made a remarkable contribution to public space utilization in Liberec, our city of residence.
During the night right after our apperance at Pecha Kucha Night Prague ‐ which took place in September 2010 - we built a public sauna at the city dam. The sauna itself was built on an abandoned concrete platform, which is located only a few dozen meters away from a popular public beach and promenade.
No legal permit was issued and the entire happening was kept secret. The bank of the dam is in public ownership of the municipality; the abandoned concrete structure as well the dam itself is owned by Povodí Labe, state administrator of watercourses of the Labe river. Neither of the authorities had any idea of what was about to happen.
Mjölk architects presented the sauna to city representatives at an opening ceremony and the sauna opened to public completely free of charge. Sauna was accessible by a little rowing boat and it is operated from a nearby café, where keys and firewood were available.
The meaning of this happening was to draw attention to limitless opportunities of cultivation of public space and life only through a simple idea and a little bit of enthusiasm and money.
After three months we had to move the sauna to another, legal place. Sauna was throughout massively exploited by visitors.
Sauna
I am a lonerin the middle of water,
prisoner of freezing storms.
My feet are licked by wet flaps,
Through winter nights you are my lust.
White paper ship cuts through the foam of shyness,
The birch is my chastity witness.
Thousand mirrors playing etude of shines,
Frosty ladder counting down steps of the night.
I am a flake on the pathway,
Hurry on, please!We don‘t have time!
For a while and then forever I vanish,
Fire will be gone and also my sound.
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