On Friday, 28 June 2019, the National Technical Museum will open a new permanent exhibition called Statika hrou in its Centre of Building Heritage in Plasy. The exhibition, which invites exploration, discovery and verification, was created in cooperation with the Czech Chamber of Authorized Engineers and Technicians Active in Construction (ČKAIT)
Engineers joined forces with museum staff to show visitors how the construction of a house works from a structural point of view. Translated into the language of smaller visitors, “How does a house stand and not fall down.”
The language of the younger visitors is not usually words and lectures, but images, touches, and the opportunity to be active in exploration. These criteria were decisive for the creation of the exhibition, but at the same time, as in the whole museum, space was left for addressing a more professional public. The opportunity to touch different materials and try out basic static principles is complemented by the chance to see old historical plans and models, to learn how and why things are made and work.
“Of the models that will be placed in the exhibition, the four and a half metre long model of the Ranka footbridge is definitely worth noticing,” points out Karel Ksandr, Director General of the National Technical Museum. “This all-wooden, almost 200-metre-long footbridge of a strut construction without internal support was designed around 1838 by the Prague master carpenter Michael Rank. It was intended to bridge the Vltava River in Prague at the site of today’s Mánes Bridge. It was never realised, but its model alone is certainly extremely interesting.”
For most people, a structural engineer is the person who is called to a damaged building and decides whether it should be demolished or not. That may be true, but the focus of his work is elsewhere. Where, this is what the newly opened exhibition aims to show.
The Centre of Building Heritage Plasy NTM
Pivovarská 5, 331 01 Plasy
www.muzeum-plasy.cz
Press release 20 June 2019
Mgr. Kristýna Koderová
PR and Public Relations Department
Email: kristyna.koderova@ntm.cz
Mob.: 777 710 802
National Technical Museum
Centre of Building Heritage Plasy
Pivovarská 5, 331 01 Plasy
