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New Fountain in the pedestrian zone in Trnava
We perceive the new fountain in Trnava, owing to its unique location in relation to the Town Hall and Hlavná Street, as one of the city’s defining urban symbols. Accordingly, we approach it as an architectural element that fulfils its representative role independently of any water or light effects.
At the same time, the intervention preserves the street’s visual permeability and pedestrian flow, ensuring that the important sightline and compositional axis towards the dominant City Tower remain unobstructed.
The design draws inspiration both from the city’s original 14th-century coat of arms and from its contemporary visual rebranding. The intervention as a whole is conceived as comprising two distinct components:
First Part:
The bronze crown stands on the footprint of a six-spoked wheel and is composed of twelve T-profiles that flow seamlessly into one another. Its continuous form, without a clearly defined beginning or end, refers to the symbols of the city’s original coat of arms: the Alpha and the Omega, the sun and the moon, as well as the figure of Jesus Christ.
Special attention was devoted to the shaping of the fountain’s final cross-section, which emerged from the fusion of the letter T and the form of a thorn, dispersing a fine water mist from its tip into the pedestrian zone.
Second Part:
The immediate surroundings of the fountain are as important to us as the object itself.They consist of a rectangular platform measuring 6 × 16 metres, bordered by a bronze profile with a narrow water overflow. Along the shorter sides of the rectangle, aligned with the main pedestrian flows, runs a bronze inscription: “Regia Civitas 1238 (2024) Trnava.”
Equally essential is the direct physical interaction with the fountain and the unhindered permeability of the entire site. For this reason, the surface of the rectangle is designed to use the same material as the central strip of the pedestrian zone. In winter, the crown becomes an urban jewel at the heart of the city; in summer, the water features help cool the public space of Hlavná Street.
1. Winter Mode - without water features
2. Mirror Mode - a still water surface stretched across the basin, suitable for walking
3. Mist Mode - a fine water mist dispersed from the crown
4. Ceremonial Mode - a more dynamic display with higher water jets emerging from the ground
status
typology
location
year
collaboration
New Fountain in the pedestrian zone in Trnava SKA architectural competition
3rd Prize
cultural
Trnava | Slovakia
2024
Vaclav Koci
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