Offcity workshop: Let's Revive the Mill Courtyard Together

Pardubice Automatic Mills are not just the beautiful building designed by Gočár, but also a courtyard worth being in, playing, meeting, and having a good time. During three summer weekend workshops on July 22-23, August 12-13, and September 2-3, 2017, we want to join everyone who is interested in creating furniture, something for children, planting greenery, simply making the mill courtyard a lively place.

The task of revitalizing the mill courtyard is undertaken by a group of female architects and artists whose project was selected within the framework of the international open call from the Offcity association for projects for the Automatic Mills.

“We have different life and work experiences as well as different approaches to public space. However, during discussions about the Automatic Mills, we succumbed to the same enthusiasm, the charm of the place, and began to look for ways to cultivate the mill courtyard. Our project was selected under the open call OFFCITY AiR 2017: Back to the Mills. Together, we are interested in what would help people to willingly spend their free time in the mill courtyard, meet friends here, and play with children.”

To find out what the locals consider a priority, the authors Karolína Koupalová, Kateřina Jirsová, and Anička Krtičková, together with Offcity, organized a friendly picnic and a joint reflection on how the mill courtyard could function on Monday, June 26, 2017. About twenty people gathered to work with the organizers in three groups. They focused on topics: furniture, playground, and garden.

“And what did we conclude? For the courtyard to function, to attract people and give them a reason to stay, we need a community bar. A place where we can prepare refreshments, or where someone else can prepare it for us. It should be mobile; we need to deal with water and electricity connections. We need seating at tables where we can just relax or do a bit of work. Everything will be enhanced with greenery and something that will entertain our children. We plan to create a little house for the kids, we need some water, sand, and plenty of other small joys to ensure that even the smallest ones enjoy the Mill Courtyard. We agreed that anything we create for the children during all three workshops should keep the kids from getting bored. We will try to improve the atmosphere in the courtyard with greenery in containers or climbing plants on the walls of the buildings. Weather permitting, we want the courtyard to be at least somewhat green by the third workshop.”

For the first workshop, where we will primarily focus on building the bar and everything associated with it, we are looking for wooden pallets, old wooden chairs, discarded school stools, foam mattresses, foam crumbs, barware, clean metal barrels for greenery, and other larger containers.

If you are interested in participating, whether by providing materials, a sponsorship donation, or your own work, please contact: Karolína Koupalová ([email protected], 724 702 738), Anička Krtičková ([email protected], 604 166 513), or Kačenka Jirsová ([email protected], 725 521 366).
Special thanks go to Mr. and Mrs. Smetana, the owners of the Automatic Mills complex, for their friendly support and enlightened approach, and to the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Pardubice City Hall for their financial support of the OFFCITY AiR project: Back to the Mills.

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