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The Guard Patrol: Celebrating local history and landscape with mountain installation.
Designed by Mjölk architekti, The Guard Patrol comprises a series of small stops in the form of steel and wood installations on the mountain above Rokytnice in the Czech Republic
The four separate towers that make up the impressive installation represent three animals – a fox, bear and sheep – as well as a miner, which are all characters from the Rokytnice coat of arms and based on the names of the four Czech villages that were combined to form the town.
As well as creating better views for walkers, the project also nods to historical buildings in the area. The Stráž mountain was one of the places where invasions by enemy armies were signalled from lookout towers to warn people.
The impressive structures, designed by Mjölk Architekti and commissioned by the municipality of Rokytnice nad Jizerou give better access to areas that were previously difficult to reach. The locations of The Guard Patrol lookouts, which have steel structures with oak cladding, were mostly inaccessible by car or heavy machinery.
To solve this logistical issue, Mjölk Architekti designed the four towers to be built from smaller parts that could be carried from the nearest road. The steel structures are placed into the rocks using special steel anchors and sit in drill holes that are up to eight metres deep. They share the same architectural details, from the oak cladding panels to the black-painted steel handrails and stainless-steel mesh guardrails.
The first of the lookouts is The Fox, which measures 17 square metres. As Tte symbol of the village of Františkov it sits on a cliff overlooking Rokytnice and has a long body with a “tail” that sticks out into the valley. It also has a smaller viewpoint next to it, known as The Cub.
The Fox is followed by robust The Bear, which can be found in the woods nearby. The 14-square-metre viewpoint has a square body on four leg-like pillars, depicting a bear midstride. The hefty structure makes an excellent spot from which to observe the local wildlife.
Further along the trail, set deep in the woods sits the nine-square-metre platform called The Sheep, which also has four legs but seems to be standing still, overlooking the forest.
