i may have been outta the business for awhile, but that doesn't mean i can't still recognize pure genius when i come across it.
consider for a moment a minor but vexing problem shared by all architects [because i just know that's why you come here]: namely, how to get rainwater off of and away from your building without fuglifying the design.
you've generally got three choices when it comes to gutters and downspouts: you can (a) hide them in the walls (expensive and problematic); (b) try to find some way to subtly blend them into the facade (usually not very successfully); or (c, and what usually happens) tack 'em on on after the fact and say fuck it.*
or you can do what this guy did (and click if you're really interested--it embiggens nicely):
and get this--when it rains, the whole system becomes a musical instrument. can you even imagine how cool that must be?
back in architecture school, if i heard "if you can't hide it, celebrate it," once, i heard it a thousand goddam times--and now, 25 years later, i finally know what they meant.
[sorry for the left turn into near-respectability this post took, but i'm sure it'll be back to business as usual around here in no time.]
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*then there's option (d): blow off gutters altogether (yeah, it was a disaster when it rained but i didn't care--it was beautiful, goddammit).
