natures water
... With pants pulled up, you immerse your bare legs in the swirling tingling water that rushes down a channel of carved rock and small boulders. This cascade slides in crystal sheets over round rock, splashes wildly and scatters in white foam against angular outcroppings, spilling finally into a pool of settling still water below. ... Across the water, the cluster of sugar pine rustle and sway in the breeze. ... It is with this use of fountains, waterworks, and landscaped flowing water in our plaza parks and public buildings that some desperately needed balance and proportion of nature is returned to the urban environment. ... It is through our joy of our senses in the experiencing natures patterns, movements, and cycles, that we touch what is primal and essential in us. ... There, that water will soften the harsh edge of concrete and soothe the human mind. ... By listening to and observing the patterns, forms, and movements of natures design we can be led to new discoveries and solutions as has happened for so many others before us. ... There one can study the shape and pattern of water moving in its forever repeating cycle from source to sea. ... From these movements of wild water, the architects of water have learned to harness and shape it to produce their desired effects. ... Water can be directed as massive vertical geysers to shoot hundreds of feet or in a pencil thin line squirting only inches. By tilting such a water jet out of plumb, graceful arcs can be created which if made to spin will turn into playful streams of swirling water. Water can also be shaped to flow and fall as a thin sheet over sharp faced ledges or mold to any more rounded form. ... This is the sweeping of rushing water over cliffs or ledges be it in steps or in free fall to splash and foam as it hits the rocks below. This makes for the drama and energy that most compels people to come to flowing water-manmade or in nature. ... The success of a fountain or water feature ultimately is in how compelling and engaging it is for its viewers . ... A review of this role of water in human civilization will show that present day water designers come from a long standing tradition. Throughout human history water has been realized to be the source of life. ... Then and now, the survival of towns and cities has depended on a source of pure water. For that reason its need is deep in our collective unconscious and keeps us from forgetting the preciousness and the mystery of water.