Dezeen Magazine

Eight buildings that incorporate waterfalls

Safdie Architects' soon-to-open Jewel Changi Airport contains the world's tallest indoor waterfall, but it's not the first building to incorporate an oversized water feature. Here are eight buildings that include waterfalls.


Waterfall architecture: Liebian International Building, China, by Ludi Industry Group

Liebian International Building, China, by Ludi Industry Group 

Perhaps the most spectacular artificial waterfall in the world is in China, where the Ludi Industry Group has incorporated a water feature into the facade of a 121-metre tall skyscraper.

The 108-metre-high waterfall, which flows from the Liebian International Building in Guiyang, southwest China, was designed to bring water into the city.

Read more about the Liebian International Building ›


Waterfall architecture: World’s tallest indoor waterfall in Moshe Safdie's Changi airport

Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore, by Safdie Architects

Safdie Architects' Jewel Changi Airport will be the centrepiece of Singapore's soon-to-open Changi Airport.

The publicly-accessible building contains the world's tallest indoor waterfall, a seven-storey cascade that falls from the oculus of the building's glass-domed roof.

Read more about the Jewel Changi Airport ›


Waterfall architecture: Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo is by Carol M Highsmith

Fallingwater, USA, Frank Lloyd Wright

Perhaps the most famous building to incorporate a waterfall is Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house in rural Pennsylvania.

The house, which is built over a nine-metre-high waterfall on Bear Run, was named the "best all-time work of American architecture" by the American Institute of Architects.

Read more about Fallingwater ›


Waterfall architecture: Waterfall building

Waterfall Building, Indonesia

In the Mekarsari Fruit and Recreation Park on the Island of Java, Indonesia, is a stepped seven-storey building that is covered in plants.

Water cascades down the facade of the appropriately named Waterfall Building, which contains the park's offices, in a series of seven waterfalls that flow into a lake.


Waterfall architecture: 9/11 memorial
Photo is by NormanB

National September 11 Memorial, USA, Michael Arad and Peter Walker

The focal point of architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker's memorial to the September 11 attacks is two square fountains.

The sunken fountains each have water flowing down into squares that are the exact footprints of the World Trade Centre towers.

Read more about the National September 11 Memorial ›


Waterfall architecture: Olafur Eliasson

Waterfall, France, by Olafur Eliasson

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson installed a waterfall in the Grand Canal at the Palace of Versailles in Paris.

The large-scale installation was designed to give the impression that water was falling into the pool from midair.

Read more about Waterfall ›


Waterfall architecture: Waterfall house by LSD Architects

Casa Cascada, Costa Rica, by Laboratory Sustaining Design

Casa Cascada, or Waterfall House, takes its name from a water feature that pours from a raised swimming pool on the first floor to a pond on the ground floor.

Designed by Laboratory Sustaining Design, the four-storey house in Costa Rica steps up a steep slope to give it views of the ocean.

Read more about Casa Cascada ›


Waterfall architecture: Gardens by the Bay

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, Wilkinson Eyre

The giant water feature at Jewel Changi Airport will be the second building in Singapore to incorporate a large waterfall.

Gardens by the Bay, the enormous tropical garden designed by British architects Wilkinson Eyre and landscape architects Grant Associates, contains a 30-metre-high manmade waterfall in a giant green house.

Read more about Gardens by the Bay ›