The rationale behind creating waterscapes is to produce sustainable and beautiful urban spaces where people can engage with the pleasures of water. In the ten years since the planning and design of Potsdamer Platz, waterscapes have increasingly become a part of our urban landscapes - mostly due to the vision of Atelier Dreiseitl.

While each case study presented here achieves a different level of "sustainability" - for example, Dreiseitl's approach is of a high level of ecological functionality while Gustafson's approach is geared more towards interpreting and reflecting how water shapes the urban landscape - all of the projects allow people to see, hear, touch and experience water moving through segments of the city.

I see these contemporary urban waterscapes as playing a similar role in our cities as the Roman fountains and Moorish gardens did centuries ago. As pieces of urban infrastructure, waterscapes respect and celebrate the hydrologic cycle of nature while simulataneously expressing the cultural importance of water for humankind.

Through their accomplished designs - from a functional and artistic perspective - Dreiseitl and Gustafson's waterscapes have the potential to create lasting memories for people. You could imagine that someone who encounters the future Washington Canal Park as a child will understand, in an intuitive and experiental way, that the water that falls on the streets and buildings of the city eventually ends up in the Anacostia River. If this water is polluted, then the river will be polluted. If the river is polluted, then the water that we need for drinking, bathing, and living is more difficult to find.

Therefore, the types of experiences offered by waterscapes can contribute to creating a better understanding of the relationship between water and our urban environments. And in this manner, people who encounter waterscapes - particularly at a young age - will have an increased consciousness of water's importance and fragility and will have the potential to become the future stewards of our urban nature and our increasingly scarce water resources.

A waterfall forms part of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens.
photograph by Francisca Rojas

"Fountains symbolize both the emergence and disappearance of fresh water. When water bubbles up naturally from a spring, it speaks of the origin, the beginning, or the source of life. At the other end of the cycle, as water seeps into the earth, it evokes the cyclical return and journey back to the source, with images of departure, death, and hoped-for return.

For all of history, people depended on fresh water, so its source was always an important place - where people gathered, settlements flourished, and cities were established. Within towns or cities, then, fountains typically designate important urban places. Even today, when most cities do not rely on public fountains for their water supplies, fountains still become focal points in communities." (Moore 21)