As an essential part of human survival, water has always been an integral part cultures around the world. This is heavily reflected in design, in its various forms spanning from a banal cup to a city-scale riverside development. Water as a primary necessity captured the imagination and touched the human sensitivity, until it turned into tales, myths, processions, memories, rituals, beliefs, fears, demystification, waste, currency. 

The cultural attitude towards water, as any other resource, is reflected through human creations. Be it a masterplan that treats it as a mere obedient element, to a constitutional law that recognises its crucial importance to human life, spaces of habitation are inevitably shaped by systems of water supply and disposal. Subjective experiences and interactions complete a complex picture.

The project “Hydrotopia” explores various attitudes towards water reflected in subjective spatial experiences. Mapping an intuitive understanding of living with water, “Hydrotopia” places focus on the experiential qualities of inhabited environments, showcasing five different outlooks that vary from water regarded as a mysterious substance, to one where it is completely demystified. Is there a way to view water in a respectful and mutually beneficial manner? How would the human environment be designed in that instance?

The video is part of the exhibition Living with Water - Southern Fringe of Ljubljana at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) and Future Architecture. The exhibition looks at alternative urban development scenarios that consider the synergetic relationships between humankind and the natural environment.