The Building That Sings
When It Rains

The sound of rain falling is music to the ears of the residents of one particular building in Dresden, Germany.

Their building is one of those that form five funky courtyards collectively known as the Kunsthofpassage, located in the city’s Äußere Neustadt (Outer New Town) neighborhood. Each courtyard is designed by local artists working on a theme. And in one of the courtyards there’s a colorful building with a series of metallic funnels attached to the facade. When it rains, water is channeled down the front of the building in a way that creates melodic notes as it goes. It sounds almost like this cool piece of architecture is singing!

So you don’t get the wrong idea, the rain does NOT make this building bust out with a water-powered orchestral arrangement. The horn you see in the pictures below, for instance, is mostly ornamental—it does not actually produce a horn sound. Imagine water dripping onto an array of different tin roofs—the sound the building makes when it rains is something like that.

To Spot Cool Stuff, there’s something charming and endearing about the building. Its exterior was designed by a trio of artists who still live inside it. They took their inspiration from a Rube Goldberg machine, a contraption designed to perform a simple task in an comically over-engineered fashion. We can’t help but see the influence of Dr. Seuss too. (As our long time readers know, we love travel to places that resemble Dr. Seuss illustrations).

You’ll find The Building That Sings When It Rains in the Hof der Elemente (The Courtyard of Elements) section of the Kunsthofpassage. Other courtyards include the Hof des Lichts (Courtyard of Light), where projectors stream movies and light shows onto the surrounding buildings, some decorated with mirrors and shiny metallic objects. There’s also the Hof der Tiere (Courtyard of Animals), which is presided over by a giant giraffe, and the brightly painted Hof der Metamorphosen (Courtyard of the Metamorphoses). Interspersed in it all is a full collection of cafes, galleries and shops.

Dresden, not incidentally, might be the most under rated urban center in the whole of Germany. Saxany’s state capital is full of great museums, historic attractions and a vibrant arts scene. The city hosts many other examples cool architecture too, though the Kunsthofpassage contains the only building in Dresden—and perhaps the only one in the world—that people regularly visit while hoping for rain.

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