This is how Mr Chen, managing director of the Xinhu Mingzhu shopping center, eloquently expressed his wonderful and passionate vision for the entrance area. The idea was a challenging one: an installation that would see water rain down from the dome of the entrance hall from a height of 26.02 meters into a pool on the ground floor with a usable diameter of just 6 meters.

The physics of the project presented the Oase team with a difficult yet highly exciting task: the high fall height would accelerate the water rapidly, produce a loud noise when it hit the pool and splash far and wide, which was a no-go given the high number of people frequenting the entrance area. Creating a simple waterfall was not an option. The unprecedented curtain height of 26 meters meant that FlashWall technology was not suitable either, because the water droplets would pick up so much speed that they would change shape too much and partially scatter.

Instead of relying on drops in free fall, the team found a solution for translating the ambitious idea into reality, using Mylar lace technology – a method of having drops of water run down strings. The trick is to measure the water volume of each individual drop with utmost precision to achieve the best possible effect – especially with a water curtain of this unprecedented height. The team carried out a huge amount of tests to find the optimum drop size – and found the winning formula.