<Nest>

The "Nest" project was born out of a desire to build and experiment. To build just for joy - our own and that of the people around us. To experiment with materials and unusual conditions. The construction itself took place as a workshop, which was attended by students and graduates mainly from FUA TUL, but also from FA VUT, FA ČVUT, and UMPRUM (the aforementioned co-authors).
I had been thinking about a similar project since 2012 when I was invited to join the team of Finnish architect Marco Casagrande, who realized his artistic project as part of the Beaufort Triennale of Contemporary Art in Belgium - Sandworm. It was a structure made of willow with dimensions of approximately 40x10x10m, which is an enormous size for that material. After it was completed, I considered building a similar structure in a completely different context. I thought of a structure in a tree - a house for children - a nest, with the idea that it would be interesting to build it in such a way that it would not be attached to the tree in any way (and without harming the tree) and to make it without any connecting elements.
In order for it not just to be an architectural experiment, the original intent was to conduct a workshop in a kindergarten or a children's home with partial assistance from the children. For two years, I searched for an institution that would be willing to collaborate with me, but legislative obstacles and mainly the reluctance of the management of these institutions to support such a project (they only allowed it, we did not request any financial compensation) discouraged me. The project eventually took place in my hometown in a park owned by a private individual, but open to visitors for free during the day. There are two hornbeam trees in the area, which have crowns spreading above the trunk and thus ideally shaped for inserting a nest. The shape itself was based on a sphere and gradually adapted to the shape of the crown. The structure in the tree holds only by the rods that wrap around the individual branches. A narrow entrance is left inside. It is a place that immediately became popular with many children from the area. Regarding load capacity, the maximum tested load was 250kg. The structure itself weighs approximately 80kg, so it can support about three times its weight.