In the beginning, there was rain.
Unharnessed and relentless, it descended straight from Genoa. The rain seemed endless— falling, pouring, drenching the world in its persistence. And then, it stopped.
But what followed was far worse. A wave came, and with it, destruction. She moved with unstoppable force, fearing neither rock nor earth, neither trees nor animals, and certainly not people. There was no rival to her might. She brought devastation, dread, and grief — a force of nature beyond control.
„The wave has reached Wroclaw,” the newspapers declared. We all read about her, and we all feared her. For she had taken everything from us once before.
In the beginning, there was rain.
Rain, anatomically rendered as metallic droplets, harnessed by Iza Tarasewicz during the 2018 Venice Biennale. This was not just any rain; it was informative — a scientific phenomenon. A drizzle, a deluge, and everything in between. It was rain, teaching us about itself.
In the beginning, there was rain.
As it transformed into a wave flowing through the river, it began to shape the land — or perhaps it was shaped by the land. Was it meandering, or was it meandered? Flooding, or being flooded? The rain’s impact on the environment was undeniable—it formed ecosystems, creating life of its own. In the beginning, there was rain.
Over centuries, many have attempted to tame it; some have even tried to domesticate the wave. And some succeeded. Water, as we have learned, need not always be our enemy. Yet even as we try to harness its destructive force, we must recognize the delicate balance—over-management can lead to unforeseen catastrophes.
Rain Pavilion, design: Centrala, 2018
This mini-exhibition “In the beginning, there was rain” developed by CENTRALA architects and the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, explores the many ways humans have learned to coexist with water, integrating it into homes, public spaces, and architectural designs cross history. It also highlights hydro-botanical design solutions for modern living, where water, once feared, becomes a source of life. By inviting hydro-botany into our homes, we create dynamic habitats for creatures and ourselves—spaces that shift and evolve with the seasons, breathing life into the environments we inhabit.
„We create projects under the theme Amplifying Nature, based on studies of the relationship between architecture and natural processes. For us, architecture is a flow, not just a static form, and its scale is not determined by the size of an object, but by the vastness of the phenomena it engages us in. We operate primarily in Warsaw and its surroundings, in the Mazovia region. The original name of our land, Mazov, meant „muddy country,” characterized by extensive floodplains. These areas have been subjected to drainage, watercourse regulation, and land drying practices for centuries. As a result, the region is rapidly drying out. The awareness that we are living in an increasingly barren place has made water our fundamental building material. In developing the vision of sponge cities, we think about the circulation of water within architectural spaces, across various scales and states of matter. We are all immersed in water in its vaporous state, living at the bottom of an atmospheric ocean.”
Centrala, 2024
- CONCEPT: Małgorzata Kuciewicz, Simone De Iacobis, Misia Siennicka
- EXHIBITION DESIGN: Małgorzata Kuciewicz, Simone De Iacobis
- GRAPHIC DESIGN: Kalina Soska
- MODELS: Onimo Makiety Architektoniczne
- EXHIBITION SETUP: Piotr Szyszkowski, Grzegorz Hoja
CONTRIBUTION: Michał Duda
This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Narodowe Centrum Kultury.
- This exhibition accompanies the City-Water-Quality of Life Congres.