“What if the boundaries between infrastructure and leisure are blurred? What if we turned watering for cultivation into an event?” Runway Rain takes on the task of continuing Bellerive’ modern ideas: standardization, repetition, hygiene and movement are its legacy. While the building used to be part of the waterfront, it has had a modest existence since the lake shore fill. Today, its function is limited to a changing facility—a small infrastructure hub in an incredibly huge shell and on a large, wide open space. The roof terrace, which once was a hotspot for light, air and sun, is now just a sideshow.

A delicate but effective irrigation system recaptures the attention. The targeted intervention revitalizes a wider area. Thanks to the sacks of earth provided and the recurring drizzle, the urban site becomes simultaneously productive and enthralling. As all supplies are free to use by the public, the gardener encounters children playing, vegetables are  picked during a performance. The water simultaneously  nourishes the plants and cools the passes-by.

Runway Rain counteracts the creeping alienation from the production of goods in urban spaces and evokes an optimistic coexistence between consumers and producers. A place of leisure is charged with meaning and anchored anew in the collective understanding of Lausanne’s waterfront.