Looks like mousetrap!All it needs is a skinny guy in a stripey swimsuit painted on the wall.I love it.

Typical Germans…they could over-engineer a fart.

But it looks cool.

What’s with the Korean flag?

lol its in germany ? and if so i didnt know korenas lived in germany lol look at the flag

So everybody gets to see human waste being disposed of?

I would like to see the same house during a rainstorm to see whether that design is just for show, or if it’s actually a working drainage system.

I’m just glad that this is a drainage system and not a SEWAGE system

there is a Korean flag in the picture so that obviously makes them german

Why is there a Korea flag there?

A house, you say…Are 5 story houses normal in Germany?

It’s decoration. Blah. Blah.

amazing building! I love the blue wood and the windows too.

We sell underwear for men’s plumbing, but never have I seen a fixture like this !

i just don’t want to be the one to see anything solid go down there but that is REALLY cool.

Katulu - There is no such thing as over engineering.

I wonder about how much stagnant water sits in that looped pipe. As for the funnels, they look like great nesting-areas for adventurous birds. Just watch your eggs!

There is no looped pipe to catch water mr. moniker.

It looks like something from Dr. Susse

Oh my gosh that is so cool. Not having a swell day but this… this helped. Amazing find. I so have to send people here now.

If regular downspouts make a little noise on a rainy day, how much do these make? On the other hand, the design is really fun so fawk it…

Looks like something out or a Dr. Seuss book.

I LIKE IT, BUT WHY NOT MAKE IT USEFUL, BUILD A LARGE TANK AND FEED EACH PIPE INTO TANK, THEN PUT A WATER PUMP ON IT AND USE IT AS EXTRA FRESH WATER FOR WHATEVER. myinventube@www.inventube.com A THINKER

hope they dont block … it’d be troublesome to clean …

Who is the DA that mentioned stagnet water? where do you see water staying in the system? Even if it did it would be a air loop just like the drains in your house…

i believe the only flaw is the one tube that has a turn completely. that could cause some nasty build up. the rest of them look like they should be able to clear themselves out.

this is very pleasing to the eye, but this doesnt drain sewage does it? that would get smelly…

Are these Korean Germans?

just kidding….lol i really like it

This picture reminds me of a minigame in Mario Party for the N64.

Here’s another very interesting drain pipe system with built-in flower pots near the Pike Place Market, in Seattle, Washington.

what’s with the korean flag?

What happens in a strong wind?

stagnant water doesn’t sit in the looped pipe - there is a hole drilled into the bottom of the loop - see the open funnel below it? catches the water from it

Love it, but am wondering how much noise the water makes as it makes its way down…

Dresden is amazing. I love the odd architecture in Germany. There’s this candy colored building in Berlin that is just weird and yet it’s nice to see an alternative to all the usual gray sameness.

That’ll be great when it hails!

This is not to far from my apartment. It’s part of Dresden Neustadt called “Kunsthof Passage” loosely translated as “Art Court”. Have a look, http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.kunsthof-dresden.de

Some nice pics if you go to images.google.com/ and search kunsthofpassage

mario’s wet dream

Looks like this home was moved from Who-Ville.

Awsome

As for the flag… have none of you traveled outside your home town… I know this is totally.. like… ‘out there’ but maybe.. just maybe.. there are korean people in Germany (OMG!)

;¬)

Maybe, just maybe… they’re Koreans living in Germany and flying their flag.
It’s not really a big deal in Europe…

Well…. OOOOOKayyyy. This is something I find interesting. I wonder what the concept was and how it got to look as it does currently.

yes, there are koreans living in germany. yes, there are five story buildings in germany. no, there wont be any feces going through there. gky

Surreal!

Really nice peace of work. Good example how to make living enviroment more pleasant with small amounts of money…

If this is Germany, then why is there a South Korea flag in the picture?

This is awesome and fun. As long as it’s for rainwater, otherwise it’s kinda gross.
I’d also like to see it in action.

I’m an American living in Dresden.

This is in “Kusthofpassage” : http://www.kunsthof-dresden.de/ and is definitely in Dresden despite the Korean flag.

Oops. Sorry missed the redirect post above. It is a rainwater system although I believe they push water into it in the summer for the many tourists that walk this street. The water does go into the ground and is most likely stored. Many of the houses here collect rainwater to use for non-drinking uses.

super mario house!

Thanks for sharing this! I sent the link to your page to my wife, who works in stormwater management here in the US. It’s nice to see imagination and creativity incorporated into utilitarian design like this. I wish there were a chance of finding out the story on the designer…

i just wanna see it in the rain, like a real bad storm watch that water fall!
cool pipes peeple!!!lol, pmsl!

Looks like a Rube Goldberg puzzle.

Can you get a picture when it’s raining?

a true marvel of german engineering

It looks like something outta DR. Seuss!

Awesome pic, but some people make the dumbest comments:

a) Who says it’s sewage? Think about it. The pipes seem to lead down from the roof/gutters, so it’s (probably) just rain water. Duh.

b) 5 floors is pretty normal in any city. Might be separate flats. Duh. (USA: 50 floors plus?)

c) The flag. Who gives a crap? Anyone can fly a flag. “Didn’t know Koreans lived in Germany”? Everyone lives everywhere! Moron, get out of the house. Plus it looks like it’s next door. Possibly not even involved. Does it LOOK European? Yes. Probably not in South Korean then.

Have a look at maps.live.com:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=shb59bj4cmk7&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=10847555&encType=1

If you zoom out you can see, it’s Dresden, Germany, Europe. You can’t zoom in, but you can see the Korean flag. No? Sharpen you eyes!

Honestly, people…

Could it be possible that a Korean family lives in Germany, and being proud of their heratage hang a flag on their apartment balcony?

Do you think that could happen?

I’m just venturing a guess here, but seriously… think these things through!

OMG! The only problem is the spoiling of the faxade because of water sparks (not to say all the noises of the water going down because of the curves, maybe a project game or another composition element to-be), but the composition is cool, something like an early Gehry.

Greetings to the one and only god Jack Bauer I saw on a post up there!!!!

Long life to the Architecture School of Alcala de Henares (and long life to us to finish this).

Cool!

Nice building. Very funny.

Kikades

This design of the drainage pipes is really cool. Would like to know how fuctional thay are.

To those asking how a Korean flag can be displayed in Germany:

Duh, what are you doing on the internet? Get back in your closet.

Thats just awesome. SO COOL

yea it definitely dresden, germany on top of the picture. either way its a pretty sweet house, no matter where its location

And then there are water butt pumps, and water butts, to achieve what MICHAEL SCHMITZ suggested above:
http://www.saynotocrack.com/index.php/2007/07/01/the-water-butt-pump
http://www.saynotocrack.com/index.php/2007/09/02/water-butts
(The links are not advertisements, just stupid commentary.)

I’m just glad that the Germans are not behind doing such type of things like Indians, BUT in some refind way

fine! )))

Hi,

I am from Dresden and I went to school just across from this building, it actually belongs to some courts connected to each other by neat passages. The houses were build around the turn of the 18th century and survived the the devastating attack during WWII.
It is pure art, making water a visible feature of the facade of this house. there are many different themes in those courts, always worth a visit if you happen to come to Saxony!
Cheers

I’m guessing that all the Korean flag comments are made by North Americans.

You need to realise that the world is different outside of your borders. In Europe, we don’t worship our national flags in the same way you do, nobody would get upset at flag burning, infact because of that, flag burning is not something that happens often, it seems to be a very emotive subject in the USA.

I live in England, on my street there is an Eritrean and Brazillian flag flying but no Union Jack (British flag) or St Georges Cross (English flag), note how neither of them are European.

Remember, the world is not always the same outside your borders!!!!

Guys, thanks for the picture and all the Kunsthof info and doubts and defense on the functionality. This is amazing, and I hope to see more of this anywhere I go - especially with this jazz musical theme in New Orleans. It is a true match for the rainy, artistic, jazzy Big Easy.

I love this stuff. I proves that you can do interesting and fun architectural things without having to spend a fortune, this can’t have been very expensive.

As for those who seem suspicious about the flag: I can verify that this is a common sight in Europe. In fact it would look a bit strange to hang your own contries flag when you’re already in that country. It’s when you’re away from home you want to show it.

It’s fine.I have a car

I love the “There’s a Korean flag! It can’t be German!” comments. Seriously, because Koreans only live in Korea. Germans only live in Germany. And you never see flags of other countries anywhere but where they originate from. Either way, I wish I had that drainage system, just because it’d be fun when it’d rain.

weird, but watch at the house: it’s a not so conventional house so the “drainage system” is in the right place
the one who lives at the second floor has it in front of the window…and as far as I can see that part isn’t supposed to do anything, there’s nothing pouring water in it

It seems like mechanical machine which used to transport materials, not drainage. It is cute i hope it adds some old buity to the modern time and modern people.

@ #77: The big windows are windows of the stairwell located between two floors. The rooms behind the narrow windows are functional rooms, like bathroom or toilet. Additionally the big funnel stands a bit apart from the house, so the tube in front of the bathroom window is not as close as it seems.

This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on a house….I’m headed to Home Depot to by gutter now.

————————————————
Remember when…..
http://www.Vintage-Ads.com

On the topic of Korean Germans - when I was little, I thought Koreans WERE German. The only Germans I’d met were Asian, so surely the rest of the country looked like that, right? I went as far as seeing a group of Asian tourists and declaring loudly, “Look mummy! Germans!”

I was only five.

to those who still cannot comprehend the South Korean flag: Go to New York, venture into Brooklyn, pick two or three neighborhoods and start counting the NON AMERICAN flags…In the 5 minute walk from home to subway station I can count at least 5 everyday, including Madagascar, Mozambique and Kenya even Cuba! Understand people, you do not live in a world where everybody are Americans and all flags are the Stars and Stripes. If anything, there might be a few Korean university students living in that apartment, as there are many in Germany. As for the drainage system, it’s really cute. As people have commented on that, knowing that it is also functional makes it twice more enjoyable for me too.

i appreciate the love and i think people should be more like this…keep it interesting.

Did anyone mention the Korean flag yet?

LOVE IT WHERE CAN I GET ONE?

I would pour 200 marbles into it from the roof @ midnight…

Methinks that the most important feature of the photo is the drainage system itself, not the korean flag… it’s insane how much attention some people will pay to irrelevant stuff.

this house is in dresden, germany… i’ve been there myself and found it by accident in a backalley.

Well its hilarious as well as useful.

yeah 5 story houses are probably quite common in germany
they are in england too, cos we have history, when the rich would just build huge houses beyond anything they needed, like celebrities really.
but that clearly isnt a house