Prague Exhibition Grounds: Reminiscence of Riyad

In my thesis I deal with the Prague Exhibition Grounds. I refer to the Prague Jubilee Exhibition held in 1891 and her apparent inspiration from world exhibitions. At same time I take into consideration the essence of the functioning of the three existing types of amusement parks – adventure parks, Disney parks and Eyck's post-war children's playgrounds.

Following a series of floods, fires and failed politics, the exhibition grounds suffered considerable damage and now hold the least amount of buildings since their inception. In keeping with this fact I have not demolished any buildings and have kept the fairly problematic complex of K?ižík’s pavilions. The aim is to create a space, which acts as an attraction in itself, but isn’t built on separate and obtrusive architectures. Narrative pavilions and amusement attractions appear in the future, as temporary buildings that gradually emerge and disappear. I am further working with research on different types of amusement parks, which I attempt to evaluate in my design. The first type are so-called adventure parks, where the main attractions are large roller coasters or Ferris wheels with various technical solutions (Six Flags). The next are Disney parks, which use different environments and attractions to tell a story or evoke a certain atmosphere. The real amusement isn’t in the fact that you are falling from a great height, but that you are falling, because you’re in a haunted hotel and plummeting to the ground in a broken elevator (The Hollywood Tower Hotel, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Florida, 1994). The third example is much more modest and is related to the post-war renewal of Amsterdam. Playgrounds built by Aldo Van Eyck in place of vacant spaces, demolished houses or on the corner of streets or squares are often very inconspicuous. Sandboxes, two or three rocks, a couple of chrome pipes, no boundaries, and the attractions are free, so you spend your entire childhood here. In keeping with the Jubilee Exhibition of 1891, I am using a method of reflection of the largest contemporary buildings of the world and their partial imitation. During research I came across the following report (in video), which became the basis for my future design. The result is a torso of the base of Riyadh’s super-building. A twelve and a half meter deep hollow with a circular floor plan 316 meters in diameter is the impression of the crescent in a one-to-one ratio.