Bernard Brewery Gardens

The hanging garden of Semiramidina, the fairy garden of Jiří Trnka, the post-prison brewery garden... Beautiful comparisons, but in sum it can be the hanging fairy garden of the Bernard brewery in Humpolec.

 The history of construction has known how to make large cellars, which we still marvel at today, since time immemorial. The creation of terraces and even gardens above residential and representative halls is also known to history, but it was not and still is not a commonplace phenomenon. It is only in the twentieth century that the idea of roof gardens has been toyed with in all its sensuality. And its end, and our present, attempts a complete ecological orgy.

We can insulate roofs well. We have developed vegetative layers, we retain rainwater and can water well with clever irrigation systems, we have devised biosystems that are very supportive and beautiful, and we have bred plant species that are well suited to roof gardens. We know how to work with all vegetative levels - even large trees can grow naturally on rooftops. Vegetation becomes a legitimate building material from which we can create not only horizontal but also vertical façade gardens.

The Bernard brewery in Humpolec is situated on a small area in the middle of the town. It is very successful and therefore needs to expand its cellars.  Since it no longer has space underground, it is building them above ground as technology halls. Logically without windows and with pragmatic, well-insulated roofs. It's not, and it can't be very nice. The thought flashes through my mind: after all, cellars belong underground! Well, yes! The hanging fairy-tale Bernard Brewery Garden is in the world. And the cellars are underneath. The newly conceived lager cellar with its concrete structure will become the pilot garden platform, on which the gardens built over the existing roofs will be linked by a modular system of steel elements. Virtually the entire floor plan of the brewery will eventually be structurally covered by a system of hanging gardens, which will be accessed from the premises of the visitor centre under construction. A great added value, a great step towards ecology, a great step towards visitors and citizens of Humpole. A garden above Humpolec. A place for sightseeing and a pleasant stay, and wheelchair-accessible access from the street!