Tidal Fountain

 Art in the building competition prison in Berlin, Plötzensee. 1986

Tidal Fountain
Art in Architecture Competition – Berlin Prison, Plötzensee

“Where there are dams, there shall be river.”

The design for the Tidal Fountain focuses on the theme of time—an aspect that becomes particularly salient in the context of a penal institution. Time appears here as a direct intrusion on freedom: as enforced waiting, as a prolonged passing, as hope for what is to come.

The object is conceived as an imaginary clockwork. Water drives the wheels like a mill, creating a calm, playfully changing flow. In the cold season, wind, rain, and snow take over the movement, so that the clockwork never completely stops. Star and zodiac signs appear on the surfaces of the wheels, bringing cosmic processes into play.

The fountain thus combines the concrete – the mechanics of the drive – with the symbolic – the representation of time as “now”, “duration”, “change”, “emergence” and “passage”.

As a poetic time machine, the Tidal Fountain simultaneously sees itself as a place of slowing down, contemplation, and dreaming. It is intended to form a counterpoint to the austere environment of the institution: an invitation to experience the moment and to understand the play of the elements as a metaphor for the flow of life.