The wooden viewing tower perched on the summit of Velký Kosíř (442m above sea level) is situated in Velký Kosíř Nature Park. The viewing tower was completed in 2013 and opened to the public in the same year. Its strategic location is accessible from several footpaths leading from the surrounding villages which helped fund its construction. The natural beauty and magnificent views of its surroundings blend with the perceptive design proposed by its architect M.A. Svatopluk Sládeček.
Conceptually, it comprises a wooden tower formed by 12 columns standing atop a stone-clad circular wall of reinforced concrete. This light, cone-shaped wooden structure is further made up of wooden columns, spars and oblique stiffeners, and is reinforced by steel rods extended over horizontal steel rings A wooden staircase wraps in a spiral around the tower’s perimeter. The viewing platform stands at a height of 25 meters and allows a 360° panorama over the surrounding landscape.
Ing. Zdeněk Vejpustek, Ph.D., of Wave Structural Design s.r.o., working together with Bochemie wood care s.r.o., produced a design for the chemical protection of the most sensitive wooden parts of the viewing tower. The maintenance work included deep treatment of the faces of the load-bearing wooden columns connecting each floor of the viewing tower, treatment of the overhanging stair brackets and treatment of major drying cracks. Two spray-coats of Bochemit Opti F+, a fungicide and insecticide, were applied and subsequently covered with Bochemit Estetik, a hydrophobic impregnation agent which prevents the underlying coats from washing off.
The chemical protection was undertaken by Wave Structural Design s.r.o., which mainly consisted of work performed at a height during dry days in 2019. The financial demands and the relatively good condition of the wood other than the jointing columns mean that the wooden structure has not yet had to be completely re-treated and likely won’t be for another few years.
