Girish Mahajan (Editor)

The Bucket Fountain

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Opened
  
1969

The Bucket Fountain

Address
  
Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

Similar
  
Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Museum, Wellington Cable Car, Nairn Street Cottage, Wellington Town Hall

The Bucket Fountain is an iconic kinetic sculpture in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located in Cuba Mall, which is part of Cuba Street. It consists of a series of "buckets" that fill with water until they tip, spilling their load into the buckets and pool below. The fountain was designed by Burren and Keen and erected in 1969.

Contents

Much of the water does not reach the buckets below, but instead splashes onto pedestrians and onlookers. On windy days (common in Wellington) water is carried several metres from the fountain.

People often add dishwashing detergent to the water, which spreads bubbles all over the mall. This is common on Friday and Saturday nights.

Wellington City Council upgraded the fountain in 2003, and some buckets were turned around so they intentionally tip their water onto the pavement.

Dog in the bucket fountain cuba street wellington


Incidents

  • Elijah Wood, who played Frodo in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, climbed on and urinated in the fountain while in New Zealand filming the movies. This was confirmed by the actor during an interview with Jay Leno.
  • In March 2006, the fountain was coated in a mud-like substance by New Zealand artist John Radford.
  • In January 2014 the bucket fountain was victim of a simulated oil spill with the water turned black and the fountain covered in signs saying "beware oil spill." This was to protest oil exploration which is happening around Aotearoa New Zealand and Wellington.
  • In February 2016, one of the larger yellow buckets located near the bottom of the fountain was stolen in the night. After a plea by the Wellington City Council to have the bucket returned, the missing bucket was left in the pool at the base of the fountain. The returned bucket was found to have been painted with an intricate and psychedelic pattern. On the 17th of March, the bucket was reinstalled on the fountain. Wellington Mayor Celia Wade, when approached on the issue, said “I'm unequivocally blissful they brought it behind unscathed and apparently enhanced, from what I’ve seen. we consider it’s utterly an appealing small paint job.”

    • References

    The Bucket Fountain Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA