FLUID DYNAMIC

摘要

A web of dry desert washes—more mellifluously called arroyos in Spanish—laces the city of Tucson, forming conduits for urban coyotes, dirt-bikers, and, periodically, mocha-brown flash floods of staggering ferocity. Normally—and rightly—architects keep buildings away from them. Occasionally, though, an architect will make an audacious gesture—after very thorough hydrological studies (see "From Hydrology, Form," page 87)—such as spanning an arroyo with a structure. Now, the Tempe, Arizona, firm Architekton has ventured beyond audacity to create an unnatural but functional arroyo on an urban floodplain, using the form of the wash to inspire the sculptural facade of the building that perches at its very edge. The result is something that arises less often in Tucson than a 100-year flood does: a municipal building with a dramatically expressive countenance that is perfectly attuned to its desert home.