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Case studies |
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Art
as neighborhood stormwater filtration and detention |
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Housing Estate in Echallens, Lausanne,
Switzerland |
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Designers: Dreiseitl studio
and Hameau de la Fontaine |
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Designer's
context
Atelier Dreiseitl, the principle landscape architect,
"works with water in all of its forms and aspects"
and
believes..."creative design comes from observation, building
and experimentation with water in order to understand its ecology
and essence, while evolving that knowledge into specific solutions
and applications." "Celebrating water's aesthetic quality,
its versatility and interconnectedness with all aspects of nature
and culture" is at the core of the Dreiseitl studio's philosophy.
For the housing estate in Echallens, Lausanne, Switzerland, the designers
combined modern rainwater management techniques with artful sculpture
to express the concept of water as "reminiscent of the fact that
the source of life once sprang from a village fountain." |
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Site
context
The housing community is 540,000 square feet and has 90 dwellings
with 250 residents. The project treats 8,860 cubic feet of rainwater
annually through a creative assemblage of passageways and holding
areas.
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Components
and functions
The rainwater flows along the streets in beautifully laid stone gutters
to a biotope. The 182 square foot biotope with roots and rushes and
a filter floor removes harmful pollutants from the water and serves
as habitat for various amphibians including palmated newts and the
threatened alpine salamander. From the biotope the water flows through
a series of theatrical runnels with designs that illustrate the playful
flow of water. The rainwater then flows into 176 cubic foot storage
tanks at the base of a fountain where it is pumped with .75 kW of
power to the central village well.
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![](../ArtWater/dreiseitl_3.jpg) ![](../ArtWater/dreiseitl.1.jpg) |
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The well is a sculptural
piece and meeting place for the community. The sculpture's high
water volume creates a striking display of water ripples and
windblown water curtains. A play and adventure park also draws
its water from the 176 cubic foot storage tank. The remaining
water flows into retention ponds which resemble natural wetlands
and support various aquatic habitats. The designers point out
that "it was clear from the early stage
that the disciplines
of art, open space architecture, leisure research and environmental
technology fuse together to form a single theme." |
![](../ArtWater/dreiseitl_2.jpg) |
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References:
Dreiseitl, Herbert, Grau, Dieter, and Ludwig, Karl, Waterscapes. 2001
Birkhäuser. Boston 2001.
http://www.dreiseitl.de/en/idee/start.htm
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