Water Tables

^{Physical Prototypes 
Related: Working Prototypes Exhibition, From Instrument to Architecture, Architecture’s Model Environments
Photography: Lisa Moffitt and Emma Bennett}


Four water table prototypes make pressure-induced airflow visible as dye lines along a steady sheet of moving water. One of the primary challenges of constructing water tables likes in creating a controlled environment of steady flow. Water registers even the slightest deflection; it flows through the finest material gap. Prototyping success was measured by the degree to which a series of visible parallel streamlines of dyed water maintained a steady course of laminar flow on the testing bed. While the visual complexity of the vortices of turbulent flow are visually beguiling, the prototyping process revealed that the act of creating a steady-state flow condition is far more materially complex.

WAT1

WAT2

WAT3

WAT4