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An urban beach, or urbeach, is a place in the downtown core of a city that has a water feature that people can use to cool off in on hot days. However, unlike a waterpark where people go specifically to splash around, an urban beach is a multi-use space, where informal waterplay activities intermix with more formal civic culture, such as business executives reading their newspapers, etc.. An urban beach is a playful place in the inner city where people can wear beach attire and splash around without being in violation of the laws and standards of appropriateness that otherwise exist within the formal downtown setting.
Urbeaches are surfaced in specially textured and easy-to-clean granite, crumb rubber, or other materials that provide a clean grit-free and grime-free alternative to beach sand. Therefore they can be used for short periods of time, without needing to clean oneself afterwards. Thus urban beaches can be enjoyed spontaneously for a few minutes, unlike oceans, lakes, pools and waterparks that usually involve planning a day trip. For example, a trip to an urban beach might be as short as a minute or two when people run through the sprinklers to cool off, and then head out to do something else.
Urban beaches provide an urban oasis that is part of a city's "concrete jungle". They make great places to relax and contemplate, or just to read the newspaper while taking a break from work. Ideally they are located within walking distance of the workplace, so users can spend their lunch hour there to enjoy a break from the city. Typically water features also create white noise that masks the sounds of traffic, thereby transforming the space into a virtual beach resort. While reading a novel at an urban beach, one will quickly forget that one is in the heart of the city. The soothing combination of sun and water, punctuated by the shrieks and laughter of children playing in the water, temporarily transforms the mind into the same state as it is in when one is on vacation at an expensive beach resort in the Bahamas.
Urbeaches are characterized by nearness and the facilitation of spontaneous visits, in which patrons may not have remembered to pack their swimsuits. Thus dark coloured fast-dry shorts, together with a dress shirt (a shirt with a collar), and dress shoes, provide transformability. For beaching, one simply has to take off his shirt and shoes.
Traditionally, in a formal city setting, there has been an implicit separation of work and play. One would never see monkey bars or sandboxes in the city center next to a clock tower or office building. But times are changing and many people no longer make a distinction between work and leisure. Urban professionals and urban passionates become one in the same, as more and more people make their hobby their work. Designers, architects, and engineers are among the growing numbers of people who are starting to live in a world of "when your hobby means business".
With this cultural shift also came a new genre of architecture in which a business man can read stock quotes alongside children frolicking in a fountain. Gone are the days when city fountains were off limits for reasons of "city image" (notwithstanding the old reasons for keeping kids out of fountains, i.e. "safety" which was often just a reason on paper, wherein the real reason was concern that too much fun in the city would ruin the image seriousness). Today, most people accept the mixing of business and pleasure.
Thus urban beaches erode the barriers erected between business and leisure.
An urban beach, or urban beach, is an urban oasis designed to enable waterplay as among one of its various usages. Although not limited to waterplay, an urban beach is multi-purpose.
Urbeaches have spray features such as fine mist, which are designed to be moderate enough for young children to play in. Other urban beaches have more vigorous splash fountains designed for older children and adults, e.g. for joggers or concert goers to cool off in. The splash fountain in Toronto's city center, Dundas Square, features 600 spray nozzles that shoot water straight up through stainless steel grilles set right in the middle of the main walkway. The nozzles rise and fall in unison, like the waves on a beach, so there are times when the water level is low enough for children to also play in the water. The heights of all the fountains rise and fall in unison, in a sinusoidally time varying manner, so that users can wait for the fountains to reach a desired height before passing through them. The sinusoidal surf, together with a gentle whistling sound of all 600 nozzles running together, creates a wonderful beach-like ambience.
The Dundas Square fountains are maintained to a high quality of cleanliness ("pool water or better" standards, according to the maintainers of the facility) because, unlike most city center fountains, these ones were designed for waterplay, in addition to their excellent architectural beauty and effect (soothing city noise-masking). Special nonslip granite slabs were installed to ensure the safety of children and adults alike who splash in the water.