The City of Pilsen’s coat-of-arms served as the inspiration for three monumental fountains constructed on Republic Square. The figures of the camel, the greyhound, and the angel were the initial concepts.
Constructed in 2010 following a two-stage design competition, the fountains have come to represent Pilsen’s future role as a 2015 European Capital of Culture. Ondrej Cisler designed the fountains using Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD software. The oblong square is defined by the Gothic Cathedral of St. Bartholomew towers and a Baroque Plague Pole located in one corner of the square.
The architect’s proposal was to complement the remaining three empty corners of the square. Despite the monumental scale of the fountains, the architect was able to create a presence without dominating the square or the existing architecture on the square.
01 - Historic city of Pilsen is graced by new fountains designed by architect Ondrej Cisler using ArchiCAD.
“I created a 3D model of the entire square to be able to evaluate the scale of the individual spouts of the fountains, which was essential to the task,” said Ondrej Cisler. “The model gave us the feedback we needed to be able to comfortably move forward with the execution.”
The fountains enrich the public space with the presence of water, recalling historic practices of ‘wasserkasten’, which were large basins of water left for the public usage.
To learn more about the city of Pilsen, in the western Czech Republic, go here. For more info on ArchiCAD go here.