Vzorkovna Sipral

The Czech company Sipral specializes in comprehensive building cladding. At its headquarters in Prague, it not only produces products made of glass, aluminum, steel, etc., but also organizes various cultural events every year – exhibitions, fashion shows – and various social gatherings. It takes great care of its grounds and gradually develops them as needed. The most suitable place for the creation of another new building – the sample pavilion – seemed to be the garden. (The pavilion is to be a simple building where various types of glass, blinds, and facade cleaning equipment can be presented to clients and architects, while the indoor hall space will be used to exhibit modules of facade parts, construction elements, materials, and prototypes.)

Come play, sir
To the garden of the plot, where a long silver express train of the Sipral factory came rushing ten years ago, a smaller train is slowly arriving. It arrives with a great delay. According to the schedule, it should have been there as early as 2001, but mainly, it’s finally coming! Carefully and sensitively, it weaves among the trees, and its engine somewhat mischievously rises above the concrete wall and peers out into the street. The railcars are glazed towards their larger, older brother with various colorful glasses. The people inside the train are not bothered by the diversity of colors, and for those outside, it is useful, as almost everyone came here to choose which type of glass they should use to glaze their currently under-construction "train."
The opposite side of the railcars is not as important, and therefore it is created entirely from scraps – as if a stingy Barka sewed curtains from the skins of sausages. It is entirely patched together from scraps of “alucobond,” which is used to clad luxurious facades of magnificent buildings. But those luxurious buildings can afford alucobond in the same color, and we were left with scraps from the facades of various houses, resulting in our railcars having a multicolored, slightly shimmering facade. Well, so what! At least you can see all the colors that are possible in this material.
The front side of the first railcar peeking over the wall towards the south is closed with glass featuring photovoltaic cells, which power colorful blinking LEDs and recharge the batteries of tired people. This first “motor” railcar is quite extravagant. As it rises above the concrete wall, it reveals its red glowing belly, and the illuminated area beneath it allows the illuminated to continue using almost the entire area of the green garden as they were accustomed to before the train arrived. (“Come play, sir! It’s so cozy here and such a nice red light...”)