RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Artful Rainwater Design: Lessons Learned Over Time
JF Landscape Journal
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 51
OP 70
DO 10.3368/lj.43.2.51
VO 43
IS 2
A1 Pennypacker, Eliza
A1 Echols, Stuart
YR 2024
UL http://lj.uwpress.org/content/43/2/51.abstract
AB Artful rainwater design (ARD) emerged in the United States in the 1990s as a creative way to manage rainfall typical of temperate climates. ARD is performative and revelatory: it shows viewers what the rain is doing—where it is moving from and where it is going on a site—and helps the public understand rain as a resource, not a waste product. Indeed, the defining characteristic of ARD is its revelation of rain’s beneficial impact, or its “rain message.” If ARD is to become an accepted, revelatory norm in rain management, designers, managers, and owners of ARDs must ensure that the rain message in every installation remains legible for the long term. This study addresses a simple question: Can we derive useful considerations to guide designers toward long‐term “rain message legibility” in future ARDs? To answer this question, we returned to 20 ARDs presented as noteworthy case studies in our 2015 book on ARD. All of these sites are now 10–20 years old. Are their rain messages still legible? The answer is varied, providing many useful insights. This study combined updated site observations of the projects with interviews of case study ARD designers and managers. The results are one set of observation‐derived themes and another of interview‐derived themes, with the intersection of those themes producing a body of useful considerations for future ARD design.