Elevated Bike Path and Riverbank of Maxidog Fík (Part I) in Kadan

Maxipes Fík is a main character of the favourite TV cartoon series. Children love him. Riverbank of Maxipes Fík in Kadan is connected with this character not only by the fact that he was born nearby, but also by the fairy-tale plot. The project is a story of a courageous idea: To enforce in the small Czech town, located in once prospering region, wounded by the German annexation during the WWII, after the War by displacement of German citizens, later on perforated by opencast coal-mining, in the region with a sorely tried environment and devastated by the communist planning, a project of the rehabilitation of a godforsaken riverbank and its re-integration into Kadan's life. Build the original riverbank promenade and the space for relaxation. Use the brownfield and wasteland of 41.500 m2 and turn the town towards to river. Connect the town with the surrounding countryside by the cycling route. And to add unexpected playfulness. Entrenched riverbed definitively divides the town from the surrounding wild landscape. Gneiss bedrock often projects the ground in the form of small rocks, original vegetation is represented by water grass or willow trees, further up from the water by oak and hornbeam forest, linden boskets and the rest of canker alleys. We enhance the natural power of the genius loci by inserting delicate and technologically courageous components as cantilevered steel cycling bridge or use a very traditional components as a dry-built stone walls, wicker fences, oak sleepers of the wooden amphitheatre strapped together by steel drawbar.

This is not a story of infantile lifesized cartoon creatures and standard climbing frames for children with a standardized street furniture, but rather a quixotic struggle for a unique architecture in the provincial environment. Materials with visible natural process of ageing as wheathering corten steel, exposed concrete, solid wood, local stone prevail. We preferred technologically soft methods dry construction enabling water penetration in the sloped ground with plenty of streams, intergrowth of vegetation, and wild plants as a presentation of the regional species.

We aimed not for an academic but a functional space. A space suitable for active, inquiring, playful and relaxing people. We aimed for a place where all people would squeeze in, and, above all, where people would enjoy the place and would be surprised. Whale is wobbling on the waves, steamer ploughs asphalt against the stream, cyclists are hovering above the rock. The mighty Ohre river murmurs in the background. Few minutes from the historic town centre a tourist walks through the mirror into the fairyland. Since the first ideas ten years passed, construction took next three years and there are two more construction phases ahead. Maxipes Fík Riverbank in Kadan contributes to fight of good against evil, where good has been winning for two decades so far. Old royal town Kadan is regaining dim glamour and dignity. The riverbank is one of the signals that in this stigmatised landscape a fairy tale is happening: return to the normal.