How does water flow uphill at Dubai’s gravity-defying waterfall?
Awater feature at Expo 2020 Dubai with waves that cascade down stone walls is drawing crowds.
Visitors are stopping to dip their feet in the waterfall that crashes to the ground before disappearing into the stone. The water also dances to music as people play in the tumbling stream below.
At night, a gravity-defying illusion makes the water appear to flow upward over stones coloured with rainbow streaks.
The experience is set to music specially written for the water feature. An orchestra in London recorded the original score by Game of Thrones music composer and twotime Emmy award winner, Ramin Djawadi.
Located between Al Wasl Plaza and Jubilee Park, three viewing platforms overlook an area about half the size of a football field, usually filled with excited visitors slipping off their shoes to try to climb the four-storey high walls.
At the centre of the ring, a spiral sculpture spews flames at night.
The water feature that dances to music was created by the company that brought us the famous fountains at Burj Khalifa and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
The team at Wet in Los Angeles decided it was time to make magic happen again and started working on the project for Expo 2020 Dubai three years ago.
The National spoke to founder and chief executive Mark Fuller to discover the water feature’s secrets.
A laboratory like a film studio
Mr Fuller’s team built mockups at the company’s research and testing laboratory in
California. In a set resembling a film studio, massive pumps were rented and engineers and architects worked together to send thousands of litres of water down the towering walls.
“I thought, suppose we created a place on Earth that had a touch of magic to it?” he said. “If you see this after dark, you see massive waves come down, you see them pause and see them pull back.”
The team at Wet decided the essence of the new installation had to be that people felt they were part of it.
Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Co-operation and Expo 2020 Dubai director general, suggested a place where people could relax and feel a touch of nature.
“We conceived the idea that it could be a place that even with all the technology around, people can re-engage with perhaps the most fundamental element of life,” Mr Fuller said.
“We thought, how could we express the inherent power of water but also its inherent charm, its playfulness, so little kids can play in the water?”
Can you walk and play in it?
“Yes, they [visitors] can walk up. We have made that area strong enough,” Mr Fuller said. “We have made the stones porous at the bottom so you think the wave is going to rush at you and then it disappears at your feet as you look down.”
Unlike the famous Bellagio fountains that twist and pirouette in the lake in front of the Las Vegas hotel, he wanted to draw the audience in.
“For reasons of safety at Bellagio, we had to have a balustrade to keep people away, so it’s at a distance,” he said.
“After everyone is gone, when we are working we can go in a rubber boat in the middle of Bellagio when it’s going up and it just thrills you. We wanted to bring that thrill to everyone.”
How the fountain works
The mechanics create an illusion that the water is shooting in reverse from the sides as it rises above the visitor’s heads and drops to their feet. Computers control the speed and movement with which the water is released in quick bursts or a smooth flow.
Thousands of litres are sustainably recycled. Wet says the installation is eco-friendly, because it wastes no water apart from what evaporates during the show.
“We very rapidly take an amount of water and we spill it over the edge and there are 151 [waves] that go around the edge, so it’s a bit like keys on a circular piano,” Mr Fuller said.
“We pour water over the edge and we can do it quickly or slowly, much like the vocals of a singer.”
‘Game of Thrones’ sounds
The soundtrack was created by Djawadi, the musician who wrote the score for TV fantasy series Game of Thrones and Hollywood films such as
Iron Man.
Musical fountains around the world are usually choreographed to existing music. This time, the water choreography was created simultaneously with the composition.
Mr Fuller, a fan of Game of Thrones, asked Djawadi to work with his team so the water display was devised alongside the soundtrack.
The music was recorded about a month ago in London with a 50-member orchestra, 30-member choir and several soloists. The nine pieces in an album called Surreal can be bought on iTunes or downloaded on Spotify.
“When you close your eyes and hear the composition, you can hear the sound of water tumbling down and in a few seconds the sound of music joins the fury of nature,” Mr Fuller said.