The Real Life Aquatic: MIT Architects Design Water-Walled Building

If a small fountain is soothing, how about building made of water?

MIT architects are set to unveil a "digital water pavilion" at next year's Expo Zaragoza in Spain. Controlled by "something like an inkjet printer on a large scale, which controls droplets of falling water," the structure's walls will be a shifting series of aquatic curtains "with gaps at specified locations - a pattern of pixels created from air and water instead of illuminated points on a screen." Sensors will allow momentary doors to form as people approach.

(Okay, so the roof is solid, though its surface will also be covered by water. What do you expect, a magical suspension of gravity?)

The press release notes that, as plumbing, electronics and recycled water are cheap, "water walls could conceivably be created on a large scale." This seems like a bit of a stretch -- really, why bother trying to justify it in green terms? Sheer awesomeness is all the rationalization that a water building will ever need.

"The dream of digital architecture has always been to create buildings that are responsive and reconfigurable," said Ratti. "Think about spaces that can expand or shrink based on necessity and use. It is not easy to achieve such effects when dealing with concrete, bricks and mortar. But this becomes possible with digital water, which can appear and disappear."

Ratti added: "In the Nineties, digital technology led us to fantasize about distant virtual worlds. Today we have moved on: the future of architecture might deal with digitally augmented environments, where bits and atoms seamlessly merge."

On a side note: since this isn't the Nineties any more, what's up with the LTJ Bukem soundtrack to the building demo site? Early Bukem's great and all, but this is supposed to be about the future.
MIT architects design building with 'digital water' walls [press release]