Water tables create a steady sheet of moving water along a sloped surface. Dyed water poured into a trough is released through small diameter holes at the base, introducing streamlines onto the table surface. As the streamlines flow around the architectural model, deviations reveal pockets of stillness (wind shadows), areas of pooling, and general flow patterns around and through the models. These patterns enable visualisation of pressure-induced airflow patterns associated with passive ventilation strategies, microclimate modification, and urban airflow patterns. Like wind tunnels, water tables supplement static environmental diagrams and complex digital simulations.
Creating steady flow is challenging. Water registers even the slightest deflection; it flows through the finest material gap. While the visual complexity of the vortices of turbulent flow are visually beguiling, the water table prototyping process revealed that the act of creating a steady-state flow condition is far more materially complex.
Fabrication documentation is available in my book.