Urban beach
An urban beach is a place, in the downtown core of a city, that has some kind of water feature in which people can cool off in on hot days.
Urban beaches provide an urban oasis in the concrete jungle, and make great places to relax and contemplate, or to read the newspaper while taking a break from work. Ideally they are located within walking distance of the workplace, so that users can spend their lunch hour there to enjoy a break from the city. Typically water features also create white noise that masks the sounds of traffic, to transform the space into a virtual beach resort. Reading a novel, in an urbeach, one will quickly forget that one is in the city. The soothing combination of sun and water, punctuated by the shrieks and laughter of children playing in the water, transforms the mind into the same state it is in when one is on vacation at an expensive beach resort in the Bahamas.
Breaking down the barrier between work and leisure
Traditionally, in a formal city setting, there has been an implicit separation of work and play. One would never see monkey bars or sandboxes in the city center next to a clock tower or office building. But times are changing, and many people no longer make a distinction between work and leisure. Urban professionals, and urban passionates become one in the same, as more and more people make their hobby their work. Designers, architects, and engineers are among the growing numbers of people who are starting to live in a world of "when your hobby means business".
With this cultural shift, also came a new genre of architecture in which a business man can read stock quotes alongside children frolicking in a fountain. Gone are the old days when city fountains were off limits for reasons of "city image" (notwithstanding the old reasons for keeping kids out of fountains, i.e. "safety" which was often just a reason on paper, wherein the real reason was concern that too much fun in the city would ruin the image seriousness). Today, most people accept the mixing of business and pleasure.
Waterplay at Work
An urban beach (urbeach), is an urban oasis designed so that waterplay is among
one of its various usages. Although not limited to waterplay, an urbeach is multi-purpose.
Urbeaches have spray features such as fine mist, that are designed to be moderate enough for young children (e.g. toddlers prefer a finer mist). Other urbeaches have more vigorous splash fountains designed for older children and adults, e.g. for joggers or concert goers to cool off in. The splash fountain in Toronto's city center, Dundas Square, features 600 spray nozzles that shoot water straight up through stainless steel grilles set right in the middle of the main walkway. The nozzles rise and fall in unison, like the waves on a beach, so that there are times when the water level is low enough for children to also play in the water. The heights of all the fountains rise and fall in unison, in a sinusoidally time varying manner, so that users can wait for the fountains to reach a desired height before passing through them. The sinusoidal surf, together with a gentle whistling sound of all 600 nozzles running together, creates a wonderful beach-like ambience.
The Dundas Square fountains are maintained to a high quality of cleanliness
("pool water or better" standards, according to the maintainers of the facility) because, unlike most city center fountains, these ones were designed for waterplay, in addition to their excellent architectural beauty and effect (soothing city noise-masking). Special nonslip granite slabs were installed to ensure the safety of children and adults alike, splashing in the water.
Economic case for urbeaches
Urbeaches stimulate economic development by retaining people in the city's downtown core. While they will never replace a trip to the Bahamas, they give rise to a vibrant family oriented lifestyle in a city that might otherwise be deserted or overrun by dollar discount shops, pawnbrokers, and drug dealers, or be a deserted "policity" on weekends and evenings.
Critics of urbeaches are quick to point out that the children that play in the fountains have no money. But the children bring their parents in tow, and grandparents, etc., and for many familes in which both parents work, the urbeach is close enough to the workplace that a family picnic is possible every day of the week. Thus parents can enjoy a day of shopping and then stop off to play with their children at the urbeach.
Private urbeaches
Further west on Dundas Street there is another urbeach, located on the roof of the Deconism Gallery/Museum/Arts Complex at 330 Dundas Street West. This facility, powered by wind and solar energy, was designed to be dual purpose: for cooling the building, and for waterplay (to cool the occupants). A rooftop urbeach is known as a blue roof. Water runoff from the urbeach is captured by a green roof (rooftop garden oasis). The green roof also helps to cool the roof in the summer, and to make an eco roof design.
The 330 Dundas Street urbeach is listed as a finalist in the Coram international design competition, and will be presented at the competition in Amsterdam in October of 2004.
List of urbeaches available for public use
- Jamison Square:
- Dundas Square, located at Yonge and Dundas streets in the heart of downtown Toronto
