How do water features create a larger sense of place within urban fabrics?
Ever gaze upon a water feature and wonder, what does it all this mean within the city context? To a more specific point, does it tie in to the Critical Regionalism of culture, or a wider sense of Universal Modernism? In a way, water features can become a "fourth dimension" to architecture that can tie large urban fabrics together. It can aid in urban heat island effects environmentally, draw together people to create triangulation within communities, draw significance from the historical context, help to build communities, and contains an element of physical attractivity.
Diagrammatic Representation of Water Features creating a Sense of Place
The Historical, Cultural, and Environmental Context of a Water Feature
Historically, water features were meant to convey a deep sense of meaning through symbolism and cultural ties (whether literal or figurative). For instance, many of the fountains of Rome literally depict the gods of their time in extravagant scale and detail. Though, literal and bold, these fountains still fit into the context of the urban fabric, because the architecture continues to reflect the same attributes. Though the culture has changed, the ancient cultural ties remain. These allow one to feel deeply rooted into the culture within the present day, whilst also providing visually stimuli. Along with providing historical significance and visual appeal, water features in Rome also serve a purpose to provide the public fresh drinking water. There are over two thousand five hundred of them throughout the city, and they ensure that even the less fortunate have access to their most basic need.
Besides the historical and cultural context the environmental context has been something that has become increasingly important over the years globally. Water features can aid in mitigating the urban heat island effect by cooling the surrounding environment, and in some cases, providing direct access to its cooling properties. All of this can be achieved naturally whilst emitting minimal carbon emissions depending upon the feature type. Overall, water features can be great benefits environmentally, culturally, and historically.
Identifying Critical Regionalism versus Universal ModernismEach of the topics outlined will be used to analyze each fountain type presented, and each fountain type will be chosen based on how well known they are. The iconic-ness of each fountain will allow those who have visited to identify with the experience of them whilst analyzing why each fits into the category chosen whether more universally or critically by region. Both of these aspects will be dived into much deeper in the next draft of this outline! Another aspect to analyze will be whether or not a water feature can serve an environmentally friendly purpose. Without one, it will become more of a hassle to upkeep, and keep running over time. In the end the point will be made that it is vital that we push for both a larger sense of place and environmentally friendly water features no matter the urban fabric typology throughout our careers.
Bibliography
Baer, Geoffrey. “The Chicago River Tour with Geoffrey Baer.” wttwchicago, 24 May 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ECsSO6_Cw
Bihani, Shruti. “Effect of Water Bodies in a Space - Architecture Blog.” Talking Spaces: Shruti, 22 April 2020, https://talkingspaces.in/blog/effect-of-water-bodies-in-a-space/#:~:text=In%20architecture%2C%20water%20element%20adds,purification%20associated%20with%20sacred%20values.
Borzo, Greg. “Chicago’s Fabulous Fountains.” Southern Illinois University Press; 1st Edition. 10 May 2017.
Community Vibrancy Wiki. “Paley Pocket Park,” Community Vibrancy Wiki, 2022. https://community-vibrancy.fandom.com/wiki/Paley_Pocket_Park
Fluidra. “Top 3 Benefits of Water Fountains in urban innovation and development.” Innovation and Technology, 31 Jan 2022,
https://www.fluidra.com/projects/benefits-water-fountains-urban-innovation/
Gelt, Joe. “Fountains – Water Wasters or Works of Art?” Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), The University of Arizona, 1993, https://wrrc.arizona.edu/publication/fountains-water-wasters-or-works-art
Gupta, Utssav. “Water in Architecture: Re-visioning fountains and water bodies.” Creators Architects: Utssav, 3 July 2020, https://insights.creatorsarchitects.com/water-in-architecture-re-visioning-fountains-and-water-bodies-43834f7e6e56
Landscape Institute, “Water Sensitive Urban Design.” 25 July 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_DTnOzYTR4
Langie, Carol. “Principles of Designing Water Elements in Urban Public Spaces.” MDPI, 4 June 2022. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6877
Greenburg, Mary O. “La Jolla’s Salk Institute: Science Meets Architecture & Oh, What a View!” The Modern Postcard: California, 25 Sept 2019, https://www.themodernpostcard.com/la-jollas-salk-institute-science-meets-architecture-oh-what-a-view/
Inman, Roy. The City of Fountains: Kansas City’s Legacy of Beauty and Motion. Kansas City Star Books; 1st Edition, 20 November 2012.
Moore, Charles W. Water and Architecture. Harry N. Abrams; 1st Edition: Charles, 1 March 1994.
Muller, Brook. Blue Architecture: Water, Design, and Environmental Futures. University of Texas Press: Brook, 10 May 2022.
Strang, Veronica. Water: Nature and Culture (Earth). Reaktion Books, 19 June 2019.
Piciocchi, Alice. “Chicago, Living on the Riverbank.” Abitare; Ross Barney Architects, 2019, https://www.abitare.it/en/habitat-en/urban-design-en/2017/07/08/chicago-waterfront-ross-barney-architects/
Trudeau, Christopher; Steele, Daniel; Guastavino, Catherine. “A Tale of Three Misters: The Effect of Water Features on Soundscape Assessments in Montreal Space.” National Library of Medicine, 25 Nov 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723869/
White, William H. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Project for Public Spaces; 8th ed. Edition: William, 1980.
White, William H. “Water Features.” Project for Public Spaces, 31 Dec 2008, https://www.pps.org/article/waterfeatures#:~:text=New%20plazas%20and%20parks%20provide,and%20fountains%20of%20all%20kinds.
Julia - You've come a long way:) You may want to include some context/explanation for critical regionalism and universal modernism within your introductory paragraph. You might want to also expand your discussion of culture, history and the environment to include some other precedents. For example, many iconic water features are linked to war memorials and there is an entertainment value to several fountains (e.g. the Bellagio in Vegas comes to mind - certainly a part of the culture of the city). There is also an artistic (perhaps in some cases linked to your attractiveness subtopic) - here I am thinking of the Crown Fountain at Millenium Park in Chicago. Just some food for thought. Did you come across other environmental aspects of water features? Increasingly they are used as part of the green infrastructure movement (to capture stormwater, for example). I am assuming that the last paragraph will be covered in your methods section. You may also want to talk about what makes a fountain "iconic" in your background section.
ReplyDelete