SENSEable City's Digital Water Pavilion

Imagine an outdoor pavilion with four exterior walls made of running water. This summers international design Expo Zaragoza 2008 will feature and interacive exbitional area, cafe and public spaces designed at MIT's SENSEable City Laboratory.

According to Patti Richards of the MIT news office, the "water walls" that make up the structure consist of a row of closely spaced solenoid valves along a pipe suspended in the air. The valves can be opened and closed, at high frequency, via computer control. This produces a curtain of falling water with gaps at specified locations - a pattern of pixels created from air and water instead of illuminated points on a screen. The entire surface becomes a one-bit-deep digital display that continuously scrolls downward.

The Tribute to Water Expo Zaragoza 2008 will be held from June 14th to September 14th in Zaragoza, Spain and is committed to searching for solutions to water and its sustainable development in the world.