Fountain 喷泉丨波兰丨Paradox

Architect：Paradox

Location：Edisona 3, 43-100 Tychy, Poland; | ;View Map

Project Year：2021

Category：Parks/Gardens;Parks;Sculptures

Original fountain project was designed by Marek Dziekoński. Well known Polish architect, author of various buildings in southern Poland such as Winter Stadium in Tychy, or Panorama Racławicka building in Wrocław who died in 2002. Structure was built in 1975 and is an extremely interesting, individual example of small architecture, matching the style of modernism, and thus the unique context of the city of Tychy. Whole object is a composition of 4 bowls in different sizes with hidden underground technical chamber. The fountain becomes a very noticeable element inside a public park, but fits well in with the surroundings. After a years with only minimal maintenance, the condition of the fountain continued to deteriorate. There were numerous dents on the surface of the bowls. Some old equipment such as nozzles and lamps ware blinded with different materials, this resulted in inequality in surfaces and more dents and damages on it. Technical chamber was equipped with old, partly rusted machinery, and the overall condition of the room was quite bad due to numerous leaks in walls and floor.

All bowls against the original design was painted with a thick layer of blue paint. This shimmering layer of poor quality paint revealed all imperfections. After many years it became a bane for the owner due to the necessity of constant repairs of detached fragments. Unfortunately, the blue color of the fountain has become its distinguishing feature, and we had to reconcile the assumptions of the original project with the expectations and habits of park users.

Designing revitalization we focus on previous shape and function, with great respect to original design. We decided to keep the blue color as a recognizable element of the space, but we minimized its surface only to the inside of the bowls. What's more, to emphasize the shapes of the bowls, we introduced a gentle gradient in the mosaic, both in the inner and outer surfaces.

We had to remove and recreate two upper bowls, due to the very poor technical condition and need to assemble a large number of installations. We placed new prefabricated reinforced concrete bowls of identical size and shape on special anchors on the existing lower bowl. 

The repaired and primed bowls were hand-covered with a mosaic of broken ceramic tiles in a blue and gray color spectrum. The mosaic was arranged by the artist Marlena Jędrocha. In the largest bowls, the mosaic has been arranged on specially prepared fragments matched to its shape. These works were carried out in the artist's studio. Those parts ware then stitched together in place directly on inside and outside surface of the bowls. The two smaller bowls were tiled in place. Due to extreme conditions, such as significant temperature fluctuations, chlorinated water and sun rays, we had to use specialized adhesives and chemicals to ensure high durability of the cladding.

All the fountain's devices were replaced, and the technical room was adequately protected against groundwater penetration.

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