Spent a couple evenings eating dinner with P and her parents, due to her reduced mobility. During a wide-ranging discussion, I wondered aloud about the viability of creating a garden designed specifically to be viewed during rainy weather. This immediately morphed in my mind into an environment that was designed to be more beautiful during rainy weather, effectively using the falling water to transform buildings and sculptures. For example, the falling water sluicing off of roofs in intricate curtain-like patterns. Or channeled into gravity-based fountains and water sculptures.
I swear I've seen this before, but I have no idea what it's called. I called it a rain garden, but apparently, a rain garden is a man-made depression designed to soak up rainwater runoff from man-made impermeable surfaces. Not what I was thinking of.
Perhaps I'm thinking of the way rain sluices off of of slanted roofs. Or Japanese rain chains (external link to video). I'm thinking of all the ingenuity that was put into medieval fountains turned to making sculptures out of channeled rain.
Why can't I figure out what this is called? I can't imagine I'm the first person to ever think of this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
apparently my google-fu is no better than yours (this does not surprise me), because i can't find anything either. other than a contest for sculpture that interacts with rain (alas no images). but you already saw that.
ReplyDeletei think it's a brilliant idea. there's something mesmeric about watching rain fall, tracing it down windows and leaves, hearing it drip. what a beautiful challenge it would be to an artist to build your version of a rain garden.