[The Necessity of Silence]*
Surrounded on all four sides by multiple storeys of classrooms and walkways, the courtyard at the lady shaw building is absurdly public - overly quiet, lack of focal points and vegetations, visually enclosed - students and staffs alike feel the sense of surveillance and constantly have the sense of being monitored.
The potential of the space is being public in the truest sense - a space where you can chitchat without being heard, study comfortably in solitude, or just watch people pass by without the awkwardness of staring - we decided to create a water fountain that provides water sound as a shield for quiet activities, while itself not so much of a landmark or focal point to overpower the space. The fountain stands as a thin wall just enough to allow waterpipes to go up inside, releasing water triggering down the uneven surface to generate gentle and random sound of water. At certain angle the fountain is almost invisible, reducing to merely a line. For the users, this fountain is intended not to be remembered of how it looks, but to be reminded on your memory of a place for studying or hanging out with the music of water splashes.
*title borrowed from Law Tsin-fung Angela