Street and city
Water play
park plaza housing complex hotel climate refuge
A floor surface with jets, sprinklers and cascades where people can play and get wet without a pool of standing water.
What it solves
It cools children and their families in the hottest hours and brings life to the plaza or park. Since water does not collect, there is no risk of drowning, and the place serves as a dry plaza when switched off.
Today
Place it in view of benches and trees, with a slip-resistant floor and drains that do not flood the surroundings. Use drinking water or recirculated treated water and program the jets on timers to avoid waste.
Common mistake
Recirculating the water without treating it properly, which can make those playing ill.
Tomorrow
With longer heat waves, water play becomes part of caring for the neighborhood’s health. It can be fed with treated rainwater and release the excess to a garden where it soaks in.
Fact When water is recirculated, it must be treated at least to the quality required for a swimming pool.
Where it comes from
- 1Baroque gardens Hellbrunn Palace, Salzburg, Austria, around 1613 to 1619
Hidden fountains surprised guests with a soaking as a game, except at the spot where the host sat. - 2Public parks of the United States Aurora, Illinois, United States, 1930s
A children’s spray pool in a public park is among the oldest examples still in use. - 3Modern urban landscape architecture Portland, United States, 1970
A cascade fountain plaza opened so people could step in and play in the water.
Masters
- Angela Danadjieva and Lawrence Halprin Ira Keller Fountain, Portland, United States, 1970
They designed a plaza of concrete cascades and terraces where people sit, walk and get wet. They teach that water in the city can be for touching and playing, not just for looking at.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Street and city
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.