Gahura’s Prospect is one of the most valuable parts of the functionalist city of Zlín. Designed by architect František Lydie Gahura (1891-1958) in the 1920s and 30s, it is characterized by its spatial urban design. Gahura’s „Prospect“ is the main north-south axis of the city centre, a „green“ spine connecting wild forest above the city with manmade city parks. It is surrounded by academic facilities and student residences, and serves as relaxation space to students and Zlín citizens alike.

The area in question is the lower part of the prospect, surrounded by buildings of the Market Hall and a department store on the western side, and by Masaryk’s Schools, demolished in the 1980s, on the eastern side. After the death of Tomas Bata, the green belt was completed by a representative glass-panelled memorial. After 1948, the year marking the beginning of the communist era, this functionalist jewel was insensitively reconstructed and became the House of Arts and Philharmonic Orchestra facility. The transformation of Gahura’s work continued in 1961, when a memorial to the communist president Klement Gottwald, after whom the city had been renamed, was erected in the avenue’s lower part. In 1990, the memorial was removed and the space remained without further intervention. In 2007, a Convention Centre and the Rectorate of the Tomas Bata University were built at the site of the former Masaryk’s Schools. The number of pedestrians in this area has increased significantly and it has become necessary to include the discussed space into the city structure. The space discussed is part of the Zlín Urban Conservation Area.

Our main intention was to fulfil a basic and seemingly simple idea: „To pass and not to interrupt.“ To pass: to allow people to move freely in a cultivated, clean, well arranged, and functional space; not to interrupt: to interact with the concept of F. L. Gahura, i.e. to relate the project both to human and to the city planning scale. This intention was achieved by shaping the terrain: grassy areas were stretched to gentle slopes, and new pavements, sunken under the terrain level, were built. To a distant observer, this makes an impression of a compact grassy area. Optically, the uninterrupted green belt seems bigger and creates an effect of grass mirror. Newly created space within Gahura’s Prospect protects the relaxing pedestrian from a busy intersection. Everyone can sit comfortably on raised kerbs or on the lawn, which is a heavy-duty one and designed for this purpose. New paths refer to existing pavements in the upper part of Gahura’s Avenue, some of which run diagonally across grassy areas and connect student residences situated on both sides of the avenue. Gahura’s Prospect is a place where many people move around and interact. The project stresses this idea by means of crossing pedestrian paths. The shaped grassy area is a visual feature in its own right. The minimalist architectural solution led to the decision not to disrupt the space by a separate sculpture or object, but to use an artwork which would become its integral part. This requirement, inviting for a conceptual solution, limited the choice of the artist. The artist chosen was Jiří Valoch. His work consists of short text message, „totally different words each time“ which is repeated six times across the whole space on the vertical sides of the kerbs. The text, that you can pass by, is simple, can be understood by everyone, at any time, yet each time it has a different meaning . The meaning of this work is open to numerous interpretations: the sentence can affect one’s emotions, it can carry personal message of the particular viewer-pedestrian. In relation to the memorial of Klement Gottwald, which used to stand here in the past, „totally different words each time“, can be understood as a memento, as a comment about the relativity and ephemerality of public monuments, political systems, and relativity of words as such.

The character of the space has been preserved and the green belt, seen from distance in the direction of the Tomas Bata’s Memorial, has been kept: one can observe pedestrians „floating“ in the undulating green surface. Pedestrians emerge and disappear again in the alignments of the grassy areas. Citizens have intuitively started to use the new paths. Some use the space as a shortcut, others stop here; also thanks to the publicly available wi-fi connection provided by the city. Public drinking fountains which overflow into bowls for dogs, have found their users since the opening of the space. Thanks to this project, the T. G. Masaryk Square has been merged into one functional unit and Zlín citizens can pass comfortably among various public buildings (department store, market, university library, etc.). At the same time, they can also stop in the open space of the square and pause for a moment. For the first time since the 1920s, people can sit on raised kerbs. Thanks to the art intervention and to the fact that it can be read and understood in many different ways, meditative, zen poem-like energy, seems to replenish this green space.