I think I've found my next travel destination! I'm intrigued by Dresden's Neustadt Kunsthofpassage ('Art Courtyards'), which are a group of five small courtyards that were turned into an art experiment called the "Ginkgo Project." Travel Notes and Beyond has a great webpage with more photos and more information about the Kunsthofpassage. They explain:
In 2001, a group of artists, sculptors, and designers took a bunch of old buildings and redesigned their façades, giving each building and courtyard specific motif and a theme of its own.
Each courtyard has a different theme, and while they all look delightful, I'm especially drawn to visiting the "Courtyard of the Elements," which includes a structure that looks like a Rube Goldberg machine. The gutters, funnels, drains, pipes, and more affixed to the walls help create a kind of music when it rains. Classic FM explains:
The singing house is the work of sculptor Annette Paul and designers Christoph Roßner and André Tempel, who all live in the building itself. Annette says she was inspired by living in St. Petersburg, Russia, where bad weather would create a 'rain theatre' on the windows of her house.
To learn more about the Kunsthofpassage and read about the other courtyards—Courtyard of the animals, Courtyard of the light, Courtyard of the mythical creature, and Courtyard of the metamorphoses—check out this nice overview. And listen to the magical music being created by the rain at the singing house in the Courtyard of the Elements.
