- #HTE A Contemporary Art Center in Prague Builds...

#HTE

A Contemporary Art Center in Prague Builds 138-Foot Rooftop Airship as a Home for Public Events

(AP Photo/Petr David Josek) All images licensed for use on Colossal.

An enormous object resembling a zeppelin has just been built atop the Dox Center for Contemporary Art in Prague. The 138-foot structure (42-meter) won’t be taking to the sky anytime soon, but will instead be utilized as a public gathering space for readings, performances, and debates about literature. The wooden airship-like building is situated atop a cascade of steps on the Dox center’s roof and should accommodate up to 120 seated visitors.

The alternative meeting space was designed as part of a collaboration between the center’s founder and director, Leos Valka, and architect Martin Rajnis who won the 2014 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. “Our aim for the world of contemporary art is to spread and get partially interconnected with the world of literature,” Valka shared with the AP at a preview event this week. “It’s a world of pure imagination, a children’s world.” Rajnis recently gave a Creative Mornings talk in Prague titled Embrace the Weird.

The airship has officially been named Gulliver, after the fictional protagonist and narrator of Jonathan Swift’s famous Gulliver’s Travels. You can see more process photos on Pinterest, Google Photos, and on Facebook.