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.”

The proposal for a vacant Vienna lot is response to the pandemic.

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.

Precht has designed a maze-like park to allow city-dwellers to enjoy nature while maintaining social distancing.

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.

Shaped like a fingerprint, the Parc de la Distance takes inspiration from Japanese zen gardens and French baroque gardens.

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.

Designer Chris Precht says this pandemic has taught us that we need more places to get away.

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.”

Lanes are spaced 240-centimetres from each other.