introduction

■ Volatile

MoMentary, daily and seasonal cycles of epheMeral forces such as wind, rain, fog, clouds, light, sound, and teMperature aniMate the landscape with a vast array of experiential conditions. these atMospheric phenoMena define our iMMersed experience of a site; yet do so without occupying architectonic space.

At once ordinary, elemental, and volatile, weather phenomena are often the most beguiling and intangible sets of processes within the landscape. Momentary, daily, and seasonal cycles of ephemeral forces such as wind, rain, fog, clouds, light, sound, and temperature animate the landscape with a vast array of experiential conditions. These atmospheric phenomena define our immersed experience of a site; yet do so without occupying architectonic space.

Volatile considers the immateriality of atmospheric phenomena and how weather dynamism can be conceived of as a tectonic landscape experience. Volatile questions how substances without form can be technically constructed and specified, and how structures and technologies control, create, and shape such uncontrollable systems to create artificial and choreographed weather.

From wind walls to misting pergolas, and from artificial clouds to digitally animated rain, these staged performances are reminders of the processes that order the landscape on a macro scale; they reference larger pervasive patterns that operate globally but activate the immediate site. The selected projects focus on methods that reproduce, describe, and highlight these volatile patterns onsite: to emphasize their multiple phases and their auditory, optical, and kinesthetic properties over time.

In this chapter, the choreography of weather brings forth the issue of the spectacle in the landscape. Volatile seeks to stage a poetic performance of sensorial dynamism by reframing and visualizing fleeting and ethereal effects. The Weather Garden sets up a stage solely for the atmospheric impressions of rain puddles. The stone surface of the courtyard is modeled to capture rainwater in a pattern of puddles. While the puddles evaporate at different rates, they transform into an animated performance of morphing shapes that reflect the sky’s moving clouds and shifting light.

Ned Kahn’s Wind Wall visually registers the extreme complexity and volatility of wind patterns. Despite its ubiquitous presence and our familiarity with the sensorial effects of wind as it whistles, rustles, and blows the leaves on a tree, the actual patterns of turbulence and eddies are often invisible. Composed of grids of thousands of rotating metal squares or pixels that fluctuate in the wind, the facade acts as a canvas for the visualization of the intricate flow patterns, much like a sand dune shaped by the desert wind. In addition, the porous wall serves as an effective shade to filter light transmission and regulate interior climate.

Volatile also investigates the issue of the technological/digital sublime and the intersection between media and weather. It explores the methods by which a weather phenomenon is recreated, regulated, monitored, and adjusted to respond to external conditions and program input.

Pitterpatterns features a computerized rainfall as a building façade. Traditional landscapes and architectural structures are built to resist and protect against natural elements; here, a weather system is integrated into the building façade. A cantilevered artificial “cloud” defines the threshold experience, but blurs the distinc-

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■ volatile questions how substances without forM can be technically constructed and specified, and how structures and technologies control, create, and shape such uncontrollable systeMs to create artificial and choreographed weather.

tion between the conventional perception of outside and inside. Each rain nozzle in the cantilevered roof is controlled by software capable of creating any variety of spatial and temporal patterns or “rainformations”. The digital compositions produce a fully sensorial experience of a passage through a rainfall soundscape, a cooler microclimate, as well as an illuminated spectacle at night.

In Pink Cloud, Harvey Milk is memorialized with an artificially colored cloud that floats over a street intersection in San Francisco. The cloud is generated with artificial fog-making technology that adapts to the fog patterns of San Francisco. Sensing when clouds are absent, a series of poles emits a fine spray, and fog hovers over the intersection. The artificial cloud is also designed to be interactive, allowing visitors to activate the cloud using a coin-operated meter. The Responsive Cloud Machine effectively reverses the usual permanence of memorial materiality with an ephemeral spectacle that is refreshingly expressive of whimsy and impermanence. Its ethereal iconography is fleeting, yet monumental.

The pergola in Parque de Diagonal Mar, featured in the Launch chapter, vaporizes water into mist to cool the air on a hot Barcelona day, and to mimic the atmosphere of the nearby ocean shorefront.

The Bamboo Garden in Erie Street Plaza, featured in the Grooming chapter, generates hot steam during winter. Bamboo planters are embedded with pumps which draw and convert groundwater into steam to create a warm microclimate and a mysterious dreamscape against the backdrop of a snowy Wisconsin landscape.

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