As we are looking forward to a productive and exciting spring/ summer season we want to revisit some of the main events that have taken place during recent month.

Yoga with Ashwani

The year 2011 was off to an intense start with Aswhani Bhanot’s second Slavonice Yoga retreat. Due to the resounding success of the first course last summer we took the risk to announce a sequel during winter time, and …to our pleasant surprise the bookings came in from Czech, Austria and Germany so that we ended up with a full class. Thanks to Dr. Neela Winkelman’s excellent translation it was possible to run the course in Czech and English. Participants started the day with a healthy but hearty breakfast at the Institut Slavonice, followed by the morning session in our Studio room. After the afternoon session everyone came together for a delicious vegetarian dinner, especially prepared by the Besidka Crew, and then retired to their accommodations all over town.

Throughout the retreat we were in good spirits (the staff of the Centre for the Future also joined the training sessions) as our guests truly enjoyed not only the lessons but also the town and its surroundings. So, the next retreat is already planned for the summer season (date…) and we are happy to see that this program is becoming a popular and permanent aspect of the Centre’s work with a chance to grow even further in the future.

(Total number of overnight stays in Slavonice: 105)

Slavonice Landscape Architecture Studio Course

At the beginning of March we were happy to open the doors of the Institut for the ‘Slavonice Landscape Architecture Studio’. This was already the third cooperation between the Centre for the Future, Pennsylvania University and University of Philadelphia here at the Czech /Austrian border. This year we were especially glad to welcome 6 participants from Technical University Prague which contributed tremendously to the quality of the work.

The 26 students from all over the world were first taken on professionally guided tours throughout the region (especially organized by the Centre team), visiting relevant cultural landmarks and studying the landscape.  They also received an in-depth education about Slavonice and its special qualities before setting out to develop design proposals for the improvement of the touristic infrastructure of the town and its surroundings.

The results of the work created during the Slavonice Studio was presented locally and then in Prague where the students spent the last few days of their trip before returning to their homelands.

At the beginning of May the finalized design studies will be presented at a major event in Philadelphia.

We are looking forward to continuing this program and are currently negotiating a three year extension. Furthermore negotiations are on the way to create a permanent landscape architecture