A public place for the time of Covid
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Austrian-based Studio Precht has designed a maze-like park divided by tall hedges, allowing city-dwellers to enjoy nature while maintaining a safe distance from others.
For now simply a proposal for a vacant lot in Vienna, Parc de la Distance, “introduces a park for physical distancing and short-term solitude.”
Designer Chris Precht noticed that the pandemic closed many parks due to the health risks they posed, such as Vienna’s famous Schönbrunn and Belvedere parks. He points out that, “this pandemic has taught us that we need more places to get away.”
Taking inspiration from Japanese zen gardens, as well as French baroque gardens with their strong order of plants and geometric hedges, Parc de la Distance is shaped like a fingerprint.
Lanes are spaced 240-centimetres from each other with a 90-centimetre wide hedge as a division, and every lane features a gateway at the entrance and exit to indicated whether it is occupied.
Each journey is around 600-metres long and takes around 20 minutes, and the paths’ reddish, granite gravel may make sound to indicate to users that there are others in the park.
Paths spiral towards a centre dominated by fountains, and from there, visitors continue to circulate outwards.
While the height of the planters vary, with different levels of hedge throughout the park, a safe physical distance is maintained at all times.
Sometimes visitors are fully immersed in nature, and at other times they may see over the hedge and across the garden.
Parc de la Distance is a space that will still have value after the pandemic, as a place to escape the noise and bustle of the city.
Studio Precht describe it as, “a brief time of solitude. A temporary seclusion from the public. A moment to think, to meditate or just to walk alone through nature.”