Building with Water

Water als an element in architecture

Water has been an important topic in architecture and urban planning for years. The revitalization of the waterfront has been a prevalent trend in cities around the world. On the other hand, architecture also had to respond to the threat of floods.
The theme of Building with Water is the use of water in architecture. It presents buildings that explicitly refer to water in their design and form. It establishes a typology of building by the water: residential structures, recreation facilities, industry and infrastructure, buildings for culture and art. The various design parameters are explored in four essays. Subsequently, twenty-two international projects are presented, organized according to their locations by a river, a lake or the sea. The authors’ concern is not to show luxurious buildings in privileged locations but rather presenting projects that seriously grapple with the main criterion of the location—namely, water—in an ecologically sustainable way and respond to it with their design.

Wasser ist seit Jahren ein wichtiges Thema in Architektur und Städtebau. «Building with Water» thematisiert die Verarbeitung von Wasser im architektonischen Entwurf; es werden Bauten vorgestellt, die sich in ihrer Gestaltung und Form ausdrücklich auf Wasser beziehen. Eine Typologie des Bauens am Wasser wird erstellt: Wohnbauten, Verkehrs- und Industriebauten, Bauten für Kultur und Freizeit. Ebenso werden einleitend klassische Beispiele des Bauens am/im/auf dem Wasser gezeigt, wie etwa Château de Chenonceaux an der Loire, Falling Water in Pennsylvania von Frank Lloyd Wright oder das Salk Institute in La Jolla, Kalifornien, von Louis I. Kahn. Geordnet nach ihren Standorten am Fluss, See oder Meer, werden dann etwa 20 internationale Projekte vorgestellt. Es geht den Autoren nicht darum, luxuriöse Bauten an privilegierten Plätzen zu zeigen, sondern Projekte darzustellen, deren Entwurf sich ernsthaft und ökologisch verträglich mit dem Hauptkriterium des Standortes – nämlich Wasser – auseinandersetzt und sich gestalterisch darauf bezieht

The renaissance of water as an element in architecture and urban planning

Numerous stimuli for the practice of design

Zoë Ryan studied art history at the University of Sussex, the University of Amsterdam and Hunter College, City University of New York. She is the Neville Bryan Curator of Design at The Art Institute of Chicago where she is responsible for organizing exhibitions and building the museum’s first collection of contemporary design. Ryan was a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and at The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and subsequently became Senior Curator at the Van Alen Institute (VAI) in New York, a non-profit public art and architecture organization where she organized the exhibition "The Good Life: New Public Spaces of Recreation," installed on Pier 40 in New York City. Her writing on art and design has been published in The Architect’s Newspaper, Blueprint, Contemporary, Monument, and Log.
Chris Zevenbergen studied ecology at the Agricultural University Wageningen and received his doctorate in environmental engineering from the University Utrecht. He is a professor at the Water Engineering Department of UNESCO-IHE (Institute for Water Education) in Delft. He is also director of the Business Development Department of DuraVermeer Group NV, a real estate developer. He is co-founder and chairman of the European Network COST C22 on urban flood management and the Flood Resilience Group (FRG). His research area is environmental engineering and water management, with a particular focus on integrated approaches to manage floods in urban environments.
Dieter Grau is a gardener and accredited landscape architect. Since 1994, he has been working for Atelier Dreiseitl, Überlingen, Germany. Atelier Dreiseitl specializes in river restoration projects, water features, large-scale water management schemes and the integration of watercycles in buildings or urban quarters. In 1996 he became head of the Landscape Architecture Department there. He is now a partner in the office and is involved in projects around the world. He lectures frequently worldwide.
Zeljka Carol Kekez holds a master degree in business administration and a graduate certificate in urban design. Pursuing a doctoral programme in urban studies and planning, her area of interest is urban identity and place making with a focus on waterfront environments. She worked for the landscape architecture office Walker Macy, Portland, Oregon and various other design firms, directing business development with clients worldwide. Carol is a principal at Atelier Dreiseitl responsible for strategic planning and global business operations.