Who doesn’t want to escape the city hustle and bustle time to time? One option is packing up and traveling to the countryside; visiting “Otevřená zahrada” [“Open Garden”] in the center of Brno is another one.
When we first entered, we were struck by the silence and simple peace of this place. Just a few seconds ago, we were in the noisy heart of the city; passing through the gates of Open Garden, the noise of trams and cars vanished.
Open Garden is a hidden paradise of smart, eco-friendly technology, and nature. The garden is located at the bottom of the Špilberk Castle park, yet it’s not easy to find. The only path to this place is a kind of a tunnel in-between the buildings. In the end of it, we found a beautiful garden, cozy bar, and even an office building.
Two buildings surrounding the garden are completely emission free! Energy that the buildings consume comes from renewable sources. The zero carbon facilities use variety of methods to achieve perfect harmony. On the roof, there are photo-voltaic panels that collect and save energy and heat the water. The remaining roof area is covered in soil with grass to prevent building from overheating, and thus there is no need for air conditioning. The buildings use rainwater harvesting to tend the gardens and for bathroom usage.
There is a small lake behind the facility which cleans used water using sand, roots, and bacteria-based filtering. There is a free water fountain, holes in the building for bats and birds to live, a compost station, automatic blinds to regulate the temperature…The list of how eco-awesome this place is could go on. The people and nature work in a yin and yang relationship complementing and enhancing each other.
The most important thing is that you can go there right now; have a picnic, study, and work (yes, there are sockets for your laptops and cells in the garden), or find your Zen. You can rent a conference room in the building or even rent the whole garden for a day. The place is family friendly, too. There is “Hotel Králík” on site, where they keep rabbits. You can leave your child there and be sure that no harm will be done and they will be entertained.
Open:
Monday – Friday 8 AM – 6 PM
Saturday – Sunday 10 AM– 6 PM
Where: Údolní st. 33.
More info.
Title picture: Moniur (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
