The Hidden Meaning and Logistics of Fountains
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
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How often do you really take notice of fountains? Yet, they seem to be in all the important places. In Chicago, you have really truly iconic fountains, like the one from the Married With Children intro. But how often do we really know the story behind even these iconic constructions? They clearly carry symbollic meaning, but what are they saying? Are they purely decoration, or is there a more pragmatic role? This video takes a close look at fountain designs and how they reflect our changing attitudes toward culture/nature. It walks through the design language of fountains and a few specific examples in chronological order to trace our changing environmental attitudes as reflected in these monumental designs.
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Architecture with Stewart is a TH-cam journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
_About Me_
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
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University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: arch.uic.edu/
Babe wake up, Stewart Hicks uploaded a new video
She doesn't love you Samuel
Thats so dumb. I get interesting videos sure but like he just describes the horrible corruptive destruction of modern real estate
Women, argh. Let the man sleep, he’s probably tired of your nagging.
Wake up??? In a few m . I . N. U . T. S ⛲🎠⌚
The Jet d'eau (french for water jet) in Geneva Switzerland is one of my favourite fountains. 500 litres of water per second are shot 140m high.
The story behind is even cooler as in the beginning it was simply a technical feature to avoid over-pressure in the city's water system when all factories basically shut down at the same time every evening...
Stewart, please consider adding captions to your images for those of us who aren't well-traveled and don't recognize many of the structures you show. Thanks.
He does add quite a few captions, from what I've seen at least
@@CarlTelama i know a lot of TH-camrs have people do their captions after uploading so he might do that
I love all your Chicago videos. I only visited once but it's so cool to hear about the many art exhibits, fountains, and architecture that I saw. It's one of my favorite cities and I can't wait to come back with a renewed sense of appreciation.
I’ve always thought fountains related back to the village well, perhaps one with a hand operated lever pump. The meeting-place functionality is a side arc to the grandeur of Versailles, and ends up as the office water cooler.
I’ve never been up north but some of your vids really make me want to visit Chicago. This is one of them
Great video Stewart. I remember how disappointed I was when visiting Versailles some years ago and finding out they don’t actually have water flowing through the fountains except on special occasions. Apparently my being there we not special enough😊
I lived in St. Louis many years ago and when I was there they broke ground on an immense arch to welcome Chicago’s sewage to the city.
@@hunterlyons5406 I think it then heads to Memphis
@@hunterlyons5406 LoL, poop tsunami without a doubt. I conjecture (you can imagine what that is worth) that the poop will circumnavigate the world and end up in Chicago (possibly even in Stewart's office)🤣
I have a mini version of that arch, but never fully understood its meaning. Thank you! 🤣
@@hunterlyons5406 Sewage water makes great beer in St. Louis ;) Jokes aside, the Stickney water reclamation plant and the underground tunnels and reservoirs leading to it are one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world. Most Chicago/Cook County rainwater and sewage gets treated before being sent down the river.
You get a like for making me literally laugh with your last paragraph! 🤣
The water feature @ the African American Museum in Washington DC is mesmerizing and thoughtful in a way that’s very poetic. And a great moment to have after experiencing the lower level of the museum
And the image of you with out glasses and a moustash was a surprise
Stewart, I think this is the first time I’ve commented on a TH-cam video, but I just wanted to show some appreciation for the great content you are putting out. I have always had a casual interest in architecture, and your thoughtful, articulate breakdowns and beautiful video edits really draw me in and have me geeking out on the stuff. Keep up the great work Sir! I’m learning a lot.
Thank you so much. That means a lot. Glad you're enjoying them!
0:34 maybe a fountain is representation how city's and towns where originated. People where settled around water to be specific a spring or a well and it wasn't just a place to where people get their water it was a common meeting space
It’s amazing how the beautiful videos of the Buckingham fountain shows how much the skyline around it has changed over the past decade. Chicago is a beautiful city with an ever changing skyline. Thank you for an amazing video
Could you please make a video about Parks and or shade places especially in the summer they are important
The fountains at The Plaza in Kansas City are really good, classical
And Muse of the Missouri uptown!
My favorite Chicago fountains are the ones in the art museum garden. I like that it has both the simple one, but also the one on the wall that’s more decorative
Another great video, Stewart, keep going and you'll soon have over a million subscribers, your production quality is certainly on par
How we treat water as a way in which we express our relationship with nature is such an interesting idea.
Not just fountains and our expression of control but the water we keep hidden and don't think about or the waterfront that we only use for an ugly shipping port. I'm thinking specifically of several creeks that run through the city of Mobile, Alabama that most people don't even know are there or the waterfront that most people can't see.
Great video, incredibly interesting to hear about different structures that appear in our lives and see it all in a new light (as a non-architect). But I must say that last one with the glass bricks featuring screens with faces from the community spitting out water... while unique and attention grabbing, I have never had such a negative visceral physical reaction to a structure than just now when you described their mouths spitting the water out with pumps that lined perfectly!!
I'm sure many people love this concept but it is clearly not for me lol! Logically I know its clean water, but emotions do not abide by logic.
I suggest you shouldn't go to Brussels most famous fountain then :-)
Human brains aren't always rational with disgust cues, and that's normal.
Eg. you could clean every surface in your apartment, and have some far out of reach place look obviously dirty, and your guests would be unnerved, doubting the cleanliness.
Stores take advantage of this by showing you fresh fruits and flowers and whatnot as you walk in.
Architecture should take note of this too: I might never interact with the spotted concrete of a brutalist building's ceiling, but as long as I can see it over me, its not a place I want to be near.
I bet an entire episode could be made about building 'hard to clean, but visible' places that suggest decay and how to avoid making them visible.
I love your videos man, very well done and you give information so smooth... I watched most of your videos and I look forward watching or seeing something about biophilic architecture
this may be my favorite video on this channel ever. Great job Stewart.
Love your videos. Thanks for awesome content!
Best fountain display I've seen is at the Peterhof Palace complex outside St Petersburg. Not really visit-able at the moment unfortunately.
At 3:40 I was shocked to see the five rivers fountain/riverscape fountain in Dayton,Ohio. It’s one of the largest fountains I’ve ever seen and I always enjoy watching it when I’m near the stadium. I don’t usually see areas near me in your videos haha.
"Instead of contaminating our drinking water we just send it back down to St Louis" I found this pretty funny.
Back?
Fountains also serve as a symbol of drought;, even if they run on recycled water, they'll be turned off, reflecting conscientiousness about water use as a whole.
Did not know that but it's a very considerat action.
I love whenever Chicago gets a spotlight
Just wonderful !!! Thanks!
New to this channel!
Great job 👍
Cheers from San Diego California
Love this video but ALSO what a good genuine ad for skillshare LOL
I major in landscape architecture and i'm grinning the whole video cause we don't get talked about enough (since the video talked about the beloved water feature lol)
Fantastic documentary. Thank you
Great video - even the rather drab fountain in Daley plaza still attracts office workers who turn the chairs in to face it, with people lost in thought at the sight of the movement of the flowing water, completely reminiscent of folks gathered around a campfire, lulled into silence by the movement of the flames
0:24 Here I am, sitting in my office about to watch some sweet architectural content when suddenly MY OFFICE BUILDING is in the video 😮
Thumbnail has fountains from Chicago. I am from Chicago. Immediately watches. Thoroughly enjoys.
Some of my favorite fountains are the splash parks for kids. Beautiful and fun. What a good idea!
I learned a lot, thanks!
This is so interesting! I often wondered how it was a useful space to create landscape art like fountains. Who is going there? Why spend all this money? Then I went and sat and reflected at the Water Gardens in Fort Worth, Texas and I now understand the importance of beautifying our surroundings in a hard city.
the Buckinghan Fountain from Married with Children in Chicago always had such a unique lookin', elaborate, & magnificent design i vividly remember always wanted to vibe in founatins as a kid. but ofc man i like listening to your point-of views, & opinions :D
Your skillshare ad makes me want to sign up. That’s a first for me.
My favourite fountain is in parc Citroen in Paris. (It’s also my favourite park).
The fountain are several fountains in the pavement. And they work in unpredictable intervals. So you can walk there and will not know if you are soaked or not. Children having fun with this randomness is integral element of this fountain.
Love your channel, greetings from The Netherlands. And I see Chicago windows everywhere around now here.
Fountains are just pretty and nice to look at. I always feel calm when one is nearby.
Thank you for all the love you give Chicago despite the creepy crown fountain
the centennial fountain is really awesome to me. a great piece of the area and with "incognito mode" and the other side of being a massive piece of the area surrounding and it's power of bringing back the river to be used and as a place of fun and practical use is really cool. while it's working parts and technical side are almost invisible, it brings out and has this power over people to bring people out and reclaim the waters. super interesting how little on the surface, can have so much draw. I've always been interested in architecture and drawing buildings as a kid and teenager, through my late teens I lost that when I got into partying and looking for a practical career. I love that you've brought that side of me back out and I look for things in architecture all around, now. I don't see much interesting stuff around my area that I am in on a day to day basis, but there are a few spots and buildings and infrastructure that really make me think "what went behind this?" and give me a clue into what the people behind some fabulous homes that lie in a quiet rather non original neighborhood have in their minds for building these homes that have a non conforming style to the surrounding area but aren't loud, it's super interesting to me and I love that watching your videos has me thinking about all these little things I used to love as a kid. I'm genuinely thinking about what I want to do career wise right now as I'm pushing myself to find my niche so to say, so I can enjoy my career and do something that has always been an interest, that I can make into my living. I love your humour and your rather informative videos too. thanks for bringing that out. I don't think I'd have had this spring out of my mind if I hadn't stumbled upon your videos :)
Chatsworth House in England has a great selection of fountains that cover all of the different types mentioned here. However, the most impressive is the Emperor Fountain. It was built in 1844 and using only the water pressure from a nearby hill could reach a maximum of height of nearly 300ft.
Stewart, you look SO different without the moustache!
Re 1893 Chicago World's Fair - Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day starts out with a deep dive into that time and place.
The street art of choice in my city was a collection of fountains underneath some ill-conceived inner-urban expressway. I don’t know if it was deliberate, but the sound of splashing water is the almost perfect white noise to mask the very similar white noise of the traffic above. Somehow noise doesn’t seem so bad when it’s coming from a fountain rather that from traffic, even if it’s the exact same noise. Humans are easily duped and don’t really mind being duped, so long as they don’t notice.
You’ve got a great, relaxing voice!
Great video!
Nice topic.
Fountains (and water) has one very good effect on me since the sound of it makes a very nice sound scenery to mask my tinnitus.
I even considered installing some sort of running wall indoors. Silly of course. Unless you have the size and funds.
Fortunately I have a small fountain I can hear not far from my apartment.
So, fountains = good sound scenery.*
Compared with speakers outdoors (e.g. restaurants and peoples' phones etc) = bad sound.
Which would be another interesting topic.
However I don't agree with you on the Daley Plaza Fountain. To me that is a really nice one in its simplest form. In contrast to the exaggerated fountains having added lights and sound-as if the water itself wouldn't be enough. That to me shows lack of confidence : )
* Although I'm pretty sure not all people would agree.
These Videos just hype me up for the new Cites-Skylines 2 City builder game! I just love the idea of cities by the people for the people, that celebrate the things we have achieved 🥰
Moving water creates negatively ionized air, which is beneficial to living creatures and we are drawn to it. That’s why it smells so good after a rain or near a running stream🖤
Thank you for this video btw
amazing. i did see a video aired on Korean tv channel showing trips to architecture monuments in the world. Mr. ando tadao kept using all his work all collaborated with slight and little water around his work. today video of yours reminds me of how important to have water features around buildings to celebrate the buildings
I would love to see more fountains celebrating nature and offering an opportunity to engage with wildness. Maybe one that has variable pressure depending on the level of the water source at that time, and with native grasses or swamp plants surrounding it.
If you're ever in Washington D.C. there are lots of great fountains, but my favorite is one we called "lips and eyeballs" when we were in high school. It's in Alexandria, just a little north of old town in a riverside park next to an office complex. I think it's supposed to depict a fallen Greek god, Apollo, perhaps. It's a fountain surrounded by two stone stairways leading down to the river, and facing the river the fountain has large granite chunks depicting a shattered statue of a Greek god resting among the rocks and waterfall. Down by the river there is a small replica of the Washington monument that you can visually line up with the actual monument several miles up and across the river, from certain angles.
We used to go there on Friday nights to drink a few beers and hang out, smoke a doobie, play guitar, when we were in high school. It's a chill place, the security guards didn't bother us kids as long as we didn't bother any one and as long as we cleaned up after ourselves.
If you ever follow Chicago’s sewage down the river to St. Louis you’ll find the tallest fountain in the us. The gateway geyser. It’s an 800hp pumps shoot water 630’ into the air. The fountain is located in east St. Louis Illinois mirroring the gate way arch on the other side of the Mississippi.
Ayy I love Jazza's content, didn't think you would know of him. :)
As a water feature artist, now you’re speaking my language. The historic aspect of fountains is interesting but the only modern fountain was the crown fountain. There are tons of other fountains especially in the Chicagoland area.
I have always been obsessed with, and love fountains. I'm from Memphis and if you ever visit, do check out the Court Square Fountain downtown. It's really pretty but I believe the base has been altered though I haven't looked into it deep enough to know if that's true, just looks different than when I was a kid. Love your channel!
This was so interesting 🧐 (even the skillshare add was interesting 🤨)!
Thanks very much Stewart, your videos are fantastic. I have a keen interest in architecture and would like to learn more about design. Are there any short courses or books I can use as a start?
Actually, I think standpipe water towers became obsolete when steam powered reciprocating water pumps were replaced by electric centrifugal pumps. The reciprocating water pumps caused surges in water pressure that could lead to ruptured water mains, and these tall standpipes absorbed and buffered these pressure surges. Since centrifugal pumps were able to deliver a constant pressure, there was no more need for these buffering towers, and most were destroyed.
Great video! A fountain that comes to mind where its application is simple yet powerful is the National September 11 Memorial & Museum (Michael Arad, I think). Thanks for sharing.
New Stewart Hicks video just dropped.
Dayton, Ohio made in this video!!! Love that
Really nice and interesting video, full of information, pleasant to see and hear. As all your other videos I've seen. Thank you! Just one detail: Jaume Plensa is a catalan artist. Just to be fair. Cheers!
Thanks!
Thank you!!!
Stanway House Fountain in England, highest gravity fountain in the world. We got SOAKED when the wind suddenly pushed the stream a bit!! 🤣 a must see.
Sometimes it's not about taming nature, and it's just because it looks nice and water is a nice detail to add to an area.
I miss Chicago.
Architect Philip Johnson famously hated traditional fountains, but still managed to create a beautiful, flowing fountain like a stream through Thanksgiving Square in Dallas, which is actually a triangle! 😎
Chicago is such an interesting architectural area.
3:43 sheets are beautiful and cascades too
3:19 but can we also talk about how great that pose is?
Metaphysically speaking, Fountains represent abundance which is literally Flow. Stagnant water represents stagnant flow or poverty. Go with the Flow... embrace Abundance!
Love that!
The Centennial Fountain over the river has been down since the river walk flooded in I believe 2020. They are currently attempting to revive that fountain as it means so much to community in and around that area in the River North neighborhood.
I heard it said years back that the Buckingham fountain is actually remotely controlled by a computer in Atlanta; part of some deal Daley Jr. made. Could be apocryphal, I dunno, it doesn't seem to make sense. I went to university across the street from the Chicago Water Tower at Loyola and enjoyed looking at it under every weather, season, and lighting condition; it really reaches out and connects you to the city's history, and I used to think about all the people that visited it over time...
I tuned out after the idea that Chicago is “cut off” by Lake Michigan, as opposed to the lake, its existence and location, being a fundamental part of the Chicago identity and psyche. Understanding that means Buckingham Fountain is in the exactly right location. The Loop, butted up against the lake, IS how we perceive the center of our region.
And cities generally have their wealthy district up against the waterfront. People like views of the water. Cities were founded there to begin with using rivers, oceans, etc. to be a source of drinking/farm water or shipping. City "centers" exist there because of the water and are not "cutoff" from some literal physical center
This was great after watching Julian O'Shea's video on what happens to water fountain coins
I like your talk about skillshare.
Stewart, we just discovered your videos while searching architecture project-based learning content for teens. Amazing! Would love to know if you worked with a production firm to create these, and if so which one. Also wondering if we can reference your videos as part of our LXs for kids. We will be charging a subscription fee. I'm Chicago based as well. Our firm is focused on bridging kids to life pursuits. ENSMBL based in Bend, OR.
I do appreciate what you have talked about here, but I'm surprised you didn't mention the Trevi fountain in Rome or the Jet D'Eau in Geneva. They are just two of the iconic fountains that deserve a mention.
As usual, lots of fun. Don't forget we are mostly water and without it we would perish very quickly. Keep up the good work and remember when you look at water, it is our source of life.
Thanks
Thank you!
3:38 holy shit I never thought I'd see Dayton in one of your videos, neat!
The garden of Villa D Este in Tivolu is the true birth of fountains, in fact still working. The vast garden has a 100 fountain road, and a " grotto" going behind the first curtain fountain ever ,like going behind the waterfall. And the dragon fountain, pushing vast amounts of water out of dragon heads , splattering onto the body of the dragon , with 2 stairwells going around the dragon, the handrails having water flowing over it, stunning, and over 600 years old.... Tivoli is 20 km from Rome
A great childrens’ wading fountain for Puget Sound. A fairly shallow, low gradient pool, that goes through low-high tide cycle in maybe four minutes. On incoming tide clams (orifices) squirt shortly before tide arrives, just as you’d see on a local beach. At first geoducks, then Manila and butter clams at higher level of beach. Of course maybe 10” of difference instead of 10 or 13 feet. We don’t want to drown Billy or Susan.
I wish you had given more attention to the fountains I've seen in several cities that interact with kids and dogs by squirting water out of an array of nozzles at random intervals. I've found hours of entertainment on warm summer days just sitting and watching the kids and dogs playing in the water.
This is interesting - yesterday I saw this in my recommended with the original thumbnail but didn't have time to watch it so put it off til later, today I see it again with it's new thumbnail. Just interesting how TH-cam's algorithm works with the thumbnail change.
Hey Hicks, I would like your advice on something.
I am considering getting a BIM certification/diploma but there are so many websites online offering BIM courses. What do you know of BIM and what do you recommend?
The other tower near the Chicago Water Tower, is that a Shot Tower? It looks a bit like the one in Baltimore?
Do one like this for NYC fountains.
“We just send it back down into St Louis.” 😅 Oh, I laughed too hard.
I've always liked the old Big Shift proposal for Chicago, along with Lolo Manhattan. Both of the proposals markedly expand the most critical areas of the city into something definitively larger. I also am a huge fan of how modernism in general seems to make sense out of even the most nonsensical street grids known to man. I believe fountains are our way of bringing a more symbolic form of water into these different plans. Nobody really thinks to bring a glass and fill it up with fountain water to drink in current times, but something like that is totally legal, and used to happen as late as the 1950's in regular occurrence. Even today, kids still frolic in fountains, even if they don't actually drink the water. As far as style, Manhattan prefers more effortless canal-like fountains with visual connection to the east and Hudson rivers to mark its rich history of maritime activity. Chicago prefers more centralized fountains to mark itself on the global stage.
it only makes sense that growing a moustache helps with confidence
New sub
Making me want to move back to Chicago
Have you seen the kirsch home in Oak Park? I drive past it any chance I get
Hey there’s an oversized baby head at the Sculpture Park in Seattle!
The video thumbnails and title changed from when I had added this video to my watch later and i had to make sure you hadn’t made two about water in one week 😂
Charles Moore would be pleased with your video
That is very high praise
@@stewarthicks As you may know, he did his Doctoral thesis on water in architecture, using that understanding at UC Santa Cruz and Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans.