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[Psychobones]

Obsidian is something I've never attempted to play with much, other than the occasional farm and such. However I'd like to change that. Simply, I want to make my entire fortress out of obsidian. I've thought of a few different ways to do this, but I haven't quite gotten the mechanism down for doing it on such a massive scale as this. I know that I'm definitely not the first to do this, so looking for some tips from the veterans.

Which would be better, digging out the area where my fort will be then filling it or building up? Each adds it's own complexities, such as if the area above ground before I put the obsidian fort there, will it still be above ground after the obsidian? If so underground farming could be an issue, if not, above ground farming might be an issue. Also, if I decide to build above ground I'll need some ideas on what to make the design (I should note I plan on putting a full sized fort into this plan, so 150 bedrooms, dining room, etc. so it will need to be large enough). I'm already leaning towards building up, as if I'm going to do the obsidian, I might as well make it look cool too.

The pump stacks I'm cool with, although they will take some time to build above ground. However, I'm at a loss as to how to properly mix the water and magma. When I have done it in the past for farming, I've used a retracting drawbridge to just dump water on magma, however I'm not sure how well that method will work here.

[Aner-Dyfan]

Well you could cast it in a lazy fashion just cast a giant box of obsidian then mine out your fortress. Fill each layer with magma then flow water over it all. Then flow (pump) magma over the water creating another layer of obsidian. Repeat as nessessay for fort height.

[Roflcopter5000]

This is all really going to depend heavily on what you're willing to sacrifice in terms of aesthetics/awesomeness of casting technique. The obsidian box method would be by far the easiest, and the only way you're really going to get cast-obsidian floors for all of your rooms and hallways.
However you go about it, I'd definitely suggest a drain shaft for lava on the edge of the mold, so that you can ensure that any over-fill goes into a (very large) basin, or back to the magma sea. Having obsidian form above where you want it to (and thereby plugging your water-flow) will be one of your biggest no-nos. But also make sure you have a separate drainage system for water, and that the water drains stay absolutely clear of lava, or you could plug your tubes. A basic construction method would be a shaft located one tile away from the edge of your mold. When you're ready to fill, you connect the shaft with your mold at the z-level above where you are casting, and build a lava-proof floodgate on that tile. Drop the gate, fill the chamber, let it drain, then after you're sure there is no lava above the z-level you want, you close the floodgate, connect your water drain shaft, place a floodgate there as-well, and then fill to cool, then drain. After you're done, remove the floodgates and construct walls in their place. Rinse/wash repeat. Probably easiest to just make your drain shafts out of stairs instead of channels, for accessing all of these floodgates/walls.
 
Another thing to take into account is that to benefit from the obsidian box method you don't necessarily have to just have a mold that is a giant featureless cube/rectangular prism. You can just make a giant cavernous space in the shape of the exterior of your fortress, which is both more cool and requires less digging.

[Psychobones]

This is all really going to depend heavily on what you're willing to sacrifice in terms of aesthetics/awesomeness of casting technique. The obsidian box method would be by far the easiest, and the only way you're really going to get cast-obsidian floors for all of your rooms and hallways.
However you go about it, I'd definitely suggest a drain shaft for lava on the edge of the mold, so that you can ensure that any over-fill goes into a (very large) basin, or back to the magma sea. Having obsidian form above where you want it to (and thereby plugging your water-flow) will be one of your biggest no-nos. But also make sure you have a separate drainage system for water, and that the water drains stay absolutely clear of lava, or you could plug your tubes. A basic construction method would be a shaft located one tile away from the edge of your mold. When you're ready to fill, you connect the shaft with your mold at the z-level above where you are casting, and build a lava-proof floodgate on that tile. Drop the gate, fill the chamber, let it drain, then after you're sure there is no lava above the z-level you want, you close the floodgate, connect your water drain shaft, place a floodgate there as-well, and then fill to cool, then drain. After you're done, remove the floodgates and construct walls in their place. Rinse/wash repeat. Probably easiest to just make your drain shafts out of stairs instead of channels, for accessing all of these floodgates/walls.
 
Another thing to take into account is that to benefit from the obsidian box method you don't necessarily have to just have a mold that is a giant featureless cube/rectangular prism. You can just make a giant cavernous space in the shape of the exterior of your fortress, which is both more cool and requires less digging.

Actually I was planning on making an absolutely HUGE cube then cutting it down around the edges to a design. With the cube method, what actually causes the drain off? Wouldn't my plan of using draw bridges eliminate that problem since I'll be controlling exactly how much water I dump on the magma.