3Droplets appears as if it were left lying by chance on the lawn in front of the terrace
among the trees – a true “drop sculpture”. 3Droplets consists of three differently sized, faceted forms interacting with their surroundings, abstractly representing "droplets" on a solid surface. It is significant for the design concept that 3Droplets was created using digital tools, which are intended to accompany the entire realization process.
Buildings and open spaces unfold along the promenade like pearls on a string. "Promenade (strictly) movement, communication; landscape edge natural to urban (sports, exercise, recreation)," is how Stefan Bernhard Landscape Architects define the character of the open space design. The artwork 3Droplets is an integral part of this concept of space within the district. It creates the transition between the landscape park-like campus meadow, the LGB (Leibniz University of Applied Sciences), and the lively promenade. It creates a place of concentrated energy, it is self-contained, and invites reflection. People can contemplate the artwork. Even more so, however, it invites spatial appropriation: climbing and – in a double sense – possession. The artwork becomes part of the lived experience of students and faculty, as they themselves can become part of the artwork through their activity.
3Droplets appears as if it were left lying by chance on the lawn in front of the terrace
among the trees – a true “drop sculpture,” which takes the American term for sculptures arbitrarily placed in urban spaces literally and thus questions the art-historically derived characteristics of a drop sculpture (Jean-Christoph Ammann, 1984:6). However, due to its site-specific, individual derivation and spatial fixation, 3Droplets lacks the crucial characteristics of interchangeability. In reality, the three “droplets” – forms 0, A, and B – are precisely located and guide passersby unnoticed: inside, between the teaching building, the meadow, and the promenade. The vertical development of the forms adopts the rhythm of the landscape modulation and intensifies it in front of the terrace.
3Droplets also symbolizes the numerous applications of liquids in medicine, both in research (microfluidics, physics, environmental research, etc.) and in application and therapy. Liquids are solvents for substances and tinctures, and "habitats" for bacteria and other cultures. A few droplets are often sufficient for microbiological and other investigations, for the scientific observation and analysis of organisms, substances, and their properties. Liquids also determine biological life, making life on Earth possible in the first place – without water, it is impossible. Bodily fluids are also liquid, with blood being a particularly popular symbol of life. 3Droplets is also intended to be red – through a red concrete glaze on the exposed concrete surfaces, matching the color of the ceramic rods at the LGB.
3Droplets consists of three differently sized, faceted forms interacting with their surroundings, abstractly representing "droplets" on a solid surface. It is significant for the design concept that 3Droplets was created using digital tools, which are intended to accompany the entire realization process: The design concept was formulated in a CAD program, constructed using material efficiency in a printer program, and exported to a print file (*.gcode) for printing on a 3D printer for model presentation. After further material efficiency optimization (support structure with cavities), the file from the workshop printer will be used to print 3D Droplets in concrete.
