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Let’s explore how to create harmony through architecture, water and space. In our series on creating your own WaterSpace, we’ve focused so far on the elements of landscape design, but there’s another essential design element—your home’s architecture—that you want to keep in harmony with your plan.

The idea of bringing harmony through architecture involving the careful placement and use of water and space has ancient roots. You can find inspirational examples as far back as China’s classic homes, which aren’t a single building but a medley of simple, often single-purpose buildings encompassed by carefully placed courtyards, trees, gardens, and water features. In the West, we look to the atriums of Roman-era villas, and the delightful variety of pools, fountains and ponds that have graced European estates and grand American homes over ensuing centuries.

Living in Harmony through Architecture

In “The Tao of Texture in WaterSpace Design” (story here), we looked at how landscapes and WaterSpaces shape mood and even our well-being. Texture creates the contrast and rhythm that helps achieve harmony through “balance without boredom, variety without chaos.”

Like many of the terms we use in landscape design and architecture, texture, rhythm, and harmony are among the musical terms equally at home with the visual arts. In his article,“Chinese Architectural Theory,” Charles Chen wrote, “architecture in Chinese philosophy and life is very similar to that of music.”

What We Build Shapes What We Become

Chen pointed out that Chinese ideas of harmony and music are very different from Western traditions. Yet the core human need to feel harmony is universal, and the music of harmony through architecture—inside and outside the home—is a force for shaping those feelings. As Winston Churchill said, “We shape our buildings, and thereafter they shape us.”

According to Chen, Confucius believed, “one can tell from the music of a nation whether or not it is well governed.” Chen explained that Confucius “lived in a time of perpetual civil strife (551-478 BC).” Confucius saw music, like harmonious architecture, as an antidote to chaos. Confucian principles, Chen wrote, shaped Chinese homes so as “to establish a harmonious relationship between father and son, man and the State.”

Originally published by Architectural Review in July, 1947, “Chinese Architectural Theory” was republished online in November 2015. (View it here.)

Defining Your Home’s Style

If you’re interested in learning more about the architectural style of your home, get the new edition of Virginia Savage McAlester’s classic, “A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture.” The new edition is available as an eBook. The electronic version is optimized for viewing and takes full advantage of the ability of an iPad and other tablets to display and enlarge color images. At 2,839 pages, I found this massive guide is made better and even more useful in its Kindle version.

McAlester says that most American home styles have their roots in Western Europe. She shows how more than 50 stylistic traditions and mixtures of home styles are based on just four foundations: Ancient Classical, Renaissance Classical, Medieval, and Modern.

McAlester further divides her classifications as “Folk houses” and “Styled houses,” explaining that Folk houses, “are those designed without a conscious attempt to mimic current fashion.” Most American homes that have survived over the years are Styled, “built with at least some attempt at being fashionable.”

McAlester covers all the basics, starting with roof types and progressing to dormers, porches, windows and the many architectural features that define a style. If you want to have more productive conversations with your architect and builder—to ensure you’re making the best, most informed choices in bringing harmony through architecture and authenticity to your new WaterSpace—buy this book.

Harmonious Spaces for Water and Your Home

If I had to choose one word to describe why homeowners want to create their own WaterSpace, I’d pick harmony. Even when clients never use the word, in describing their desires, I invariably discover that harmony is at the heart of the things they prize.

Perhaps you envision a private place, an outdoor living space, where you can see, feel and experience the interplay of water, earth, sky and wind. Whether that space is your retreat or party place—or both—if it’s designed in harmony with your house and its surroundings, it will become a focal point and source of harmonious living at home.

There’s a small space trend that has become really big in custom pools. They’re called “spools,” and they’re popping up everywhere. As a designer and builder, I like the challenges small spaces present. You have to do more with less space, and that focuses everyone—clients, designers and builders to think differently.

There are many reasons why people are going to spools:

• More work from home and staycations may have been driven by COVID-19, but the trend is here to stay.
• People with smaller lots want to get out of the house without leaving home, and a small WaterSpace is the answer they’re looking for.
• Those unspent travel and resort budgets are going into home improvements, including bringing the resort atmosphere home.
• Thinking small is almost always more environmentally friendly.

The advantages of smaller luxury

If you’re thinking a small WaterSpace offers a more affordable luxury environment, you’re probably right. Unless there are unique site problems, smaller costs less than bigger, but to get the luxury feel, it’s going to cost more than plopping a pool or spa in your yard.

A smaller space generally reduces the cost and complexity of a project, but you’re going to put some of those savings into upgraded materials and amenities. It’s like buying the best model in a mid-sized luxury car. It’s certainly not an economy car, but it may be the right size for you. When smaller fits your needs better than bigger, it’s a nice bonus to get a more comfortable fit for your budget as well.

Small WaterSpaces on bigger properties

Interestingly, it’s not just small homes or odd-shaped lot owners who are looking to create a small custom pool area. I’m getting requests from owners who already have large pool installations and want to add a small, quiet retreat.

I think of it as the outdoor equivalent of the smaller rooms where I often meet couples in their homes. One room in particular stands out in my memory. It was a tiny, cozy room barely big enough for the three of us, situated just off a huge living room.

Those grand living rooms are great for entertaining large gatherings. The small room, however, is so much more comfortable for a few people—or simply being alone. Customers often tell me a small private room is their favorite room in the house.

You can experience the same thing outdoors. A small WaterSpace serves different, more personal needs. The big pool space is wonderful for big families and entertaining. But sometimes you need a space that provides a more intimate setting.

Start small; grow bigger over time

Starting small is an attractive alternative for those with bigger lots who aren’t ready for a big custom project. Consider the advantages of starting small and growing bigger over time:

• Think smaller when you don’t have time for the disruption of a big project
• Start small now and learn from your experience before going big
• Spread your investment over a longer period

Starting small and growing bigger is a smart move, but only if you begin with a master plan. A good plan now will save a great deal of money as you enlarge your WaterSpace in the future.

Finding space for a small WaterSpace

Small lets you think beyond the backyard. People are putting stunning small pool environments in side yards, interior courtyards, and even front yards.

Courtyards are especially interesting spaces. I recently created a courtyard WaterSpace in Moorestown, NJ, between the garage and the house. You can create a courtyard in just about any space. Courtyards offer more privacy. They provide a peaceful, restful space. Customers often include a place for meditation and prayer. It a wonderful place to read a good book, have a quiet conversation, or be alone with the one you love.

A space for comfort and pleasure, retreat, and entertainment
Finding comfort at home sometimes means being able to be alone, but humans need the company of others to thrive. It’s no accident that in addition to the “spools” name, small pools are also called “cocktail pools.”

Small spaces can be created for entertainment as well as quiet contemplation and relaxation. You don’t have to design for one at the expense of the other. I urge clients to be conscious of both needs when planning their WaterSpace—whether big or little.

Small space, layered elements

Good small spaces are layered with interesting sights and soundscapes. On the surface they seem simple, but they pack in a lot of elements to create and sustain that feeling of simple ease. It’s very much like finishing a large space, just on a smaller, compact scale. You’ll want to consider some combination of these elements in your small WaterSpace:

Small Pools (spools): Depending on the space and your interests, small pools or spools can range from a lap pool to a plunge pool. Spools are anything up to 120 square feet; so a lap pool could be 3 feet wide by 40 feet long and 4 feet deep. Plunge pools can be as simple as the popular “steel tub” solutions to a custom-shaped in ground pool.

Spas and Hot Tubs: A custom spa can be integrated with a pool or stand alone. Manufactured spas offer lots of options and sizes. We like the Bullfrog spas. I think they’re one of the best engineered spas you can find.

Water Features: Water features that enhance a small space environment include fountains, falls, water walls, and a pond or reflection pool. In addition to their visual impact, many of these features add to the soundscape and can provide white noise to neutralize outside sounds.

Decks, patios and pergolas: Finding room for you to relax and enjoy the sun and shade can be a challenge for some small spaces. These features—creatively placed—add immeasurably to the pleasure you’ll derive from your WaterSpace.

Other essential elements: Lighting and sound system, green space, fencing. and walls.

Outdoor living: A kitchen area, a small poolside dining area and, for cool evenings or an extended season, a fire pit, gas or electric heaters, and sauna.

I make lots of color choices and design decisions at work, but my wife picks the colors in our home. Some people think professional designers dictate color choices. That’s old school. Today, most people want to make their own decisions. That’s the way it should be when you work with a designer (or spouse), whether inside your home or outdoors in a WaterSpace.

Even for people who share the same tastes, reaching agreement on color is a difficult conversation. In this fifth of the five elements of design, I’ll offer some insights on how to talk more effectively about color design.

Why Color Talk is Hard

Color is a very complicated thing. It touches on art and science, psychology and culture, language and commerce. It affects our moods and our choices, even our purchases. Just ask any manufacturer that’s spending a fortune to get colors just right and then keep them consistent.

Color is hard to talk about because it’s so personal—more so than you may realize. It’s the most subjective—make that contentious—design element. Our individual DNA, culture, language, and life experiences make us unique. No two people see color—react to color—in exactly the same way. We all have favorite colors (and colors we favor or disfavor unconsciously). With an infinite range of colors and combinations of hues, shades, tints and tones, the chances are good someone’s favorite isn’t on your list.

In his book, “Color: A Workbook for Artists and Designers,” David Hornung writes, “our psychological response to color is unquantifiable.” While Hornung holds that color is beyond anyone’s “objective understanding,” his book shows how artists and designers learn—through experimentation, practice, and the help of science—to apply colors that please.

The Move to Color Collaboration

Not long ago, I attended a color theory seminar led by Feras Irikat, the design director at Lunada Bay Tile in California. “Let your clients pick the colors,” he advised, “then show them where to put it.”

Irikat is widely known in the pool industry for his creative mosaics and tile designs. He’s taught and done advanced studies and research in color theory and psychology. In an April 22, 2019, article in Design News, he wrote that his clients are “like a project manager, leading the designer down the right path, so they can create this beautiful masterpiece.”

He aimed his article at designers, and I think you’ll find him right on target about how you want to be treated. Irikat tells designers, “Let your customer tell their story with you. Let them enjoy the journey and be a part of it.… Most importantly, make them a part of their own story and their journey with you. It is the story they will tell over and over because they helped to write it.”

You can read Irikat’s article, “Understanding the customer design journey” here. Go here to learn more about Lunada Bay Tile.

The Language of Color

To get the results you want from your color choices, get more comfortable using the technical terms artists and designers use. A good place to start is with hue, saturation, and value. These three fundamental color factors are the basis for all the colors we see.

Hue: Hue is what we generally mean when we speak of color. Every hue humans can perceive falls along the continuum of colors—or combination of colors—in a rainbow.

You may have learned the mnemonic Roy G. BIV to remember the names of the rainbow’s colors. R is Red, then Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. From these three all other colors can be derived.

Saturation: Saturation describes how closely a color appears to be true to the color cast by a prism. A saturated paint color has little or no other color mixed in. The higher the percentage of just one color a paint sample has, the more saturated the color.

Value: Value expresses the light and dark of color. When you mix paints with white, you get a lighter tint. Add black and you get a darker shade. Color value is closely related to luminosity, the relative differences between light and dark colors.

Light values are more luminous because they reflect more light. Dark values absorb more and reflect less light. When a lighter value is placed next to one that’s darker, the light one will appear more luminous and the dark one even darker. You can get a sense of a color’s value when you see it rendered in black and white photography. You might discover, for example, that a certain brown turns out to be a lighter gray (more luminous) than a medium blue.

Light and Color Temperatures

Different light conditions alter our perception of any hue, shade or tint. In outdoor environments, the daily progression of sun and clouds, shade and night means more light changes more frequently. Artificial lighting at night adds further complication, since not all lights have the same effect.

Consumers revolted when manufacturers changed home lighting away from warm tungsten lightbulbs to cooler but more energy efficient florescent and LED bulbs. Manufacturers took note of the resistance and developed LEDs closer to tungsten. Now you see displays in big box stores demonstrating the effects on color samples from all sorts of bulbs going from warm yellow to bright white.

We often speak of color temperature: we call bright reds hot—like fire—yellows and oranges are warm, greens cool and comforting. Too much blue and white can feel cold, like snow and ice. Bright white paint looks yellow in tungsten light, blue in florescent. The yellow bias of tungsten lighting makes red, yellow and orange pop, but green and blue look more muted. Cool white florescent or LED lights perk up blues and greens.

Study and Practice: The Art of Color

Artists and designers spend a lifetime studying color and learning even more through continuous practice. Today, a designer’s tool box includes both traditional methods and lessons learned from physics, chemistry, biology, and social psychology.

Clearly no one article can provide a complete guide to all design methods. You can find a lot more information online, including presentations on Vimeo and YouTube.

Another good place to start is with Hornung’s book. The third edition of “Color: A workshop for designers and artists” was released in August 2020. It’s beautifully illustrated, including a glossary with color examples for each term. Every chapter has a few practical exercises the author assigns students (hence the “workbook” title). You can do the exercises yourself, or just have a good read. You’ll likely find yourself going back to the book as a reference.

Making Color Choices

The art of good color design rests on an infinite number of variables and choices. But it doesn’t have to become overwhelming, or spoiled by wrong choices. Go ahead and choose the colors that please you, that reflect your lifestyle.

Collaborate with others to help get you past that color perception conundrum. Use the language of color to talk about how those choices contribute to what you want to achieve. For big jobs, look for professional guidance from someone who knows how to apply your colors to achieve the best effect.

As you become more conversant in the language of color, you may even find it easier to make color choices with your spouse. It worked for me.

Texture is an element that means more to landscape architects and WaterSpace designers than the word suggests to others. A recent debate with my wife over a bathroom remodel reminded me just how far apart that understanding can be.

She is subscribed 100 percent to the clean, modern contemporary style that has become the leading trend in design. I suggested we needed a little texture to create a point of emphasis. Unfortunately, my idea went completely against the grain of her concept of modernity.

I countered, no, you can have a smooth surface and still evoke texture. For example, that white marble vanity top you like would have more texture and be a striking focal point with some dark veins running through it. Smooth, sleek and textured. Problem solved and peace returned.

Our initial differences arose from a common misunderstanding that isn’t easily bridged. You have to learn to see texture the way artists and architects see it. Without some training, most of us equate texture with something rough or rustic—certainly not sleek and smooth.

Texture as a Design Philosophy

Perhaps it will help to think of texture as the Chi of your WaterSpace environment. According to the Tao, every space has Chi, a life-force whose flow of energy—for good or bad—is present in the spaces we inhabit.

The Tao identified five elements: wood, fire, earth metal and water. Each element must be in positive balance within your surroundings for you to enjoy a beneficial flow of energy. These are the same elements we employ in building a WaterSpace, and they all add up to what we call texture.

Let’s investigate how texture provides that subtle yet profound Chi-like influence.

Feeling beyond Touch

Landscape texture reaches beyond touch, beyond sight. You experience it with all your senses. People have felt its effect as a mystical experience for millennia. Where the Tao called it Chi, ancient Greeks saw it as an elemental Spirit.

As the Tao taught, we are affected by the harmony—or disharmony—of the space surrounding us. Before any earth is moved, architects, landscape and WaterSpace designers have to anticipate the harmonious interplay of every element in a planned space. It’s their job to foresee how different textures could make or break the harmony you and your guests would feel.

Try this experiment the next time you walk into an outdoor space: Ask yourself, “How does this environment make me feel?” A conscious awareness of this otherwise unconscious effect is an essential skill landscape designers must develop.

Balance, Contrast and Rhythm

Texture is the balance and contrast of opposites: hot and cold, light and dark, smooth and rough, tall and short. It’s the warmth of sun and fire, the cool of water, shade, a breeze. The rhythm of tall and low, large and small shapes.

Your WaterSpace design wants to hit that sweet spot where you have balance without boredom, variety without chaos. Often you’re designing with elements that you can’t control, only accommodate: nature, weather, seasons, and the things beyond your property line.

Water Adds Texture and Change

Water plays with texture in so many interesting ways. It can stand still in a pool and reflect like a mirror. The same pool water can ripple and move. Movement is flow and energy. Flow can be calming or invigorating, or some combination of the two. Flow can be heard, like music or wind, or seen and heard, like wind stirring pool water or a nearby lake. It can be the flow of a stream or river, or ocean tide. Perhaps your property is graced by one of these natural water scenes. Or you want to add a purpose-built water feature—falling, flowing or meandering through your property.

If your pool will overlook ocean waves breaking on shore, you may want to balance the sound of surf with a serene fountain’s trickle, placed in a grotto or tucked in a quiet garden. Or you can go with a water feature that feels more energetic, such as a cascading waterfall.

Light and dark, warm and cool provide further contrasts. On a cool evening, you could enjoy the warm glow of burning embers in a fire pit, or the visual excitement of flaming torches, dancing light across your pool’s water. You may be thinking about a poolside morning coffee or waterside dining in the evening, with the pool positioned so a light breeze brings fresh scents from your garden.

Unity and Contrast in Shapes and Materials

Some pieces of your design are constantly moving—many others are affected by movement. You can sense the texture of movement in the interplay of stationary shapes and surfaces. Designers seek to create unity and contrast in the rough or smooth surfaces of wood, metal and stone—or other materials made to look like those things.

Perhaps you prefer decks of wood or patios of brick and stone—or want both. Pools can be surrounded by tiles or decking, concrete or stone pavers. A nearby structure of sleek metal, glass and polished wood—or heavy rustic beams, stone and concrete—will further set the tone and texture.

The materials you choose and the features that surround your pool area are part of an endless dance of contrast and unity. This textural movement creates the different tones, the harmony of your WaterSpace.

Dancers Planted in the Earth

They may be rooted in the ground, but plants are in constant movement, adding variety to texture and space. Their moves are often in slow motion—growing upward and outward and sending out roots. They change colors and textures with the seasons. They bloom, grow leaves, yield fruit or berries. Their leaves turn color in the fall and leave branches bare in winter.

Sometimes you can see planted things move. Both trees and bushes dance softly in a light breeze. When you look up, you can see the leaves of taller trees moving to winds you can’t feel on the ground.

Seasons of Changing Texture

You can plan for changes in texture and shape. Just as you do for summer, spring or fall, you can make winter colors part of the plan. The bark of the native Red Twig Dogwood, for example, or the Coral Bark Japanese Maple, can provide bright contrast to the monochrome tones of winter. Both do well in the Mid-Atlantic climate.

Change of texture is natural. It’s a part of the yin and yang of WaterSpace design. The challenge of managing change is one of the big reasons you want to get help planning and maintaining your WaterSpace. Starting with good design and paying consistent attention through the years will minimize problems. Let the natural changing textures of time and space enhance your WaterSpace year after year.

Thanks at a new app called Swimply, next summer you may be able to rent out your pool, just like renting a room, a house or a vacation home. An app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play lets you rent your pool by the hour.

The Swimply app has been around since 2019, but I’d say it’s still in startup mode. The company missed raising another $2 million in funding, perhaps due to unlucky timing: it went out just as COVID-19 brought the market to a hard stop. Then the virus shut down gyms and public pools and curtailed travel to resorts and beaches, giving Swimply a huge boost in users and revenue. According to the company, it grew more than three thousand percent this year.

The business has had some growing pains, which you can read about in user reviews on the App download pages. But it also has fans among owners and swimmers. Just as AirBnB experienced with its app for renting rooms in private homes, Swimply has seen some push back by local authorities. Rockland County in New York has banned private pool rentals and Tom’s River, NJ, has also forced local owners to delist their pools on the app.

For those here in the Mid-Atlantic states who are considering the possibilities, a few pool owners have reported earning as much as $10,000 a month during the 2020 swim season. Many of the app and organizational kinks should be worked out in time for our 2021 pool season. Pool rental rates currently run between $40 and $60 per hour, and rentals are limited to a max of eight people. Like AirBnB, Swimply takes 15% of the rent collected by the owner and adds a 10% fee to the renter’s charges. You can visit the Swimply website here.

Let’s examine the questions to answer before starting your pool design. I’ll spare you the long list in this overview, but if you’re planning to build a custom pool environment, be prepared to spend up to three hours in an onsite discussion with your designer or contractor. In my initial interview with clients, I’ll bring a list of 75 questions or more.

Some questions are easy to answer, such as how many people are living in your home and what are their ages. Others are harder, and a few may require research.

Find and fix problems

You want to help uncover the problems early in the design stage, not after they’ve poured the concrete. In urban areas, the most frequent problems revolve around views and privacy. Even in less crowded locations, you may have a beautiful view you want to feature but need to hide something else.

Your designer has to anticipate how things will look from different perspectives, both outdoors and from inside your home. The design theme you prefer also comes into play at the beginning. It will help set the mood and influence where your attention will be directed as you move through your WaterSpace.

Barbecues, Outdoor Kitchens and Shelters

Poolside eating and drinking are at the top of many pool design lists. My own list of questions includes more than a dozen items pertaining to dining and entertaining. There will be questions about location of appliances, shelter, tables, chairs, entertaining areas, sound systems, and utilities.

What about Weather and Seasons?

Your weather and seasonal deliberations should go beyond the usual question of adding a heater to extend your pool season. Like today’s restaurants, you may want to beat the cold or lessen summer’s heat with heaters and fans.

You’ll also want to provide shade from the sun’s heat and shelter from a summer shower.
Consider, too, the direction of prevailing winds. You don’t want the wind blowing rain or barbecue smoke into your poolside entertainment area.

The Natural Setting

Trees, shrubs and plantings contribute mightily to your WaterSpace experience. You’ll be considering their colors and texture, and the amount of sun or shade required. You also want to anticipate their growth over time, particularly for trees and shrubs.

How much maintenance and pruning will be required to keep your bushes and trees in proper shape and size? How long will it take those specimen trees to grow tall and overshadow your pool or obscure your view?

Pools, Spas and Water Features

If you’ve owned a pool before, or have spent a good deal of time around pools, I want to know what you liked and disliked about those experiences. You need to talk about the kinds of swimmers who will be frequenting your pool: lap swimmers, loungers, kids at play?

What in-pool activities are important: a sunbathing shelf, lap lanes, volleyball, basketball, swim-up bar? What are the minimum and maximum pool depths you require? If a spa is to be included, there will be a whole set of questions revolving around the size and features you desire.

More Pool Details

What pool materials and colors do you like? What coping do you prefer: concrete, cast or pre-cast, stone, travertine, faux rock or brick? You’ll want to plan for pool lighting and water features: water jets, bubblers, waterfalls, fountains and more.

Then there are mechanical and water purification choices to be made. Do you want totally automated systems? Do you prefer an ozone, chlorine, salt or mineral purification system? When it comes to maintaining healthy water, you want to be sure you’re getting good advice and the right system.

Costs and Budgets

Sometimes I encounter clients who don’t want to limit ideas with a pre-conceived budget. More often, one of the first questions on a consumer’s mind is “what will it cost?” Your designer and builder, on the other hand, will want to know the budget range so you don’t waste time on plans that don’t fit the budget.

In most cases, home owners like to consider a range of options. Knowing the options and trade-offs helps them become more aware of the things that are most important. You may also want to learn about ideas that could go beyond the budget but would enhance your experiences and enjoyment.

Work, Timelines and Line Items

Once all your wishes and budget considerations have been taken into account, your designer/builder can develop a detailed timeline and cost estimate. Your estimate should provide you a line-by-line breakdown of anticipated costs.

Everything from herbicide application to demolition or repairs of existing elements should be accounted for. Your estimate could run to 30 or 40 items or more. It will list every feature to be purchased and work to be accomplished, such as electrical, gas, plumbing, soils and grading, sprinklers, structural engineering and more.

It’s a Learning Process

Seventy-five questions can seem like a lot, and it’s going to take even more time than what you’ve invested reading this article. But it’s the right way, the only way to start the learning.

Every design/build WaterSpace is a learning process for homeowners and their designer. You’ll learn more about the features and design elements that will bring you the greatest satisfaction. Your designer learns about the unique characteristics of your space and develops a deeper understanding of your preferences and vision.

Two Unique Opportunities for Landscape Architects Looking for a Chance to Grow and Exercise your Passion for Design

I’m looking to hire two landscape architects who can help me meet the growing demand for finely designed and built pool and landscape installations. TheWaterSpace is a specialized design and build service from Budd’s Pools & Spas, one of the most respected pool builders in the Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic region.

One position is for a seasoned and licensed landscape architect with 15 years of experience in residential landscape design. The second position is for an entry-level landscape designer with a degree in landscape architecture and three years of relevant work experience. For more information and to make application, visit our Career Opportunities page.

Every WaterSpace Starts with a Line that Takes a Form that Becomes a Plan. 

Lines make Shapes, and when a shape becomes part of a formal design it is called a Form. This may seem a trivial matter of word choice, but they are important distinctions when designing your WaterSpace.

In the previous article on shape, I introduced the bubble diagram as your design’s starting point. The bubble is your Functional Diagram. It’s an invisible framework that your eye won’t see in the finished design. But your mind will sense its presence because it provides the functional order of where major things are placed.

The bubble diagram helps the designer and client sort out how major elements are to be placed in your WaterSpace.

The illustration here shows how a designer transforms an initial bubble diagram into a formal composition. In this case we’ve used circular forms (shapes) to bring four major pieces—garden, lawn, pool and walk—into a visually appealing design.

Creating this visual order with line and form is a critical step in arriving at a successful design. The lines of your design theme— circular lines in this example—allow the elements to relate in a coherent design. It provides the critical visual order your mind seeks.

Without a consistent design theme, the design breaks apart into its various pieces. Minds and bodies will never be comfortable in an environment of unrelated parts. The secret to pleasing design is consistency in both placement and choice of shapes. This brings us back to the line and the shapes they form.

Next comes the Form Composition that sets the design theme.

A line can go on forever—to infinity—except when you connect it to another line. Of all the shapes you can make with a line, the circle is the most pleasing. A circle is a perfect curve, the completed line that has a center point but no beginning or end. Circles and their 3-D form, the sphere, are found in the natural word wherever you look, from the sun and moon to the roundness in so many living things, right down to the pupils of your eyes.

Of course, it would really get boring—even look unnatural—if everything were circular. There are many other interesting forms that designs can take. Squares and rectangles make for more formal designs that can evoke anything from traditional to modernistic themes. Turn those forms at an angle and you have diagonal shapes, definitely more modern.

From circular you can go to a curvilinear theme that may take on a Mid-Century Modern vibe or an organic, natural feel. Mix rounded and straight lines and you have an arc and tangent theme. Or go whole-hog-modern art with an abstract irregular theme.

Whatever theme you and your designer choose, the art of the design will be determined by how well it all hangs together. Repetition of your basic shapes, for example, is pleasing to the eye. Also called unity, repetition is one of the seven principles of design, which includes symmetry, balance, emphasis, contrast, movement and negative space.

All those concepts and more will be covered in future articles, as we delve deeper into designing your own WaterSpace.

There have always been people who think they can save money on a pool by not paying for a plan. They have this vision of a luxurious backyard retreat, but they skip the planning and just buy the pool from the lowest-priced builder.

If you’ve joined the recent virus-driven rush down that path, the mountainous backlog America’s pool builders are climbing may give you time to reconsider. The pool business has gone crazy since Covid-19. All at once, homeowners want to turn backyards into their primary vacation destination. Pool sales are up more than 150 percent and next year’s schedule is nearly filled for many builders.

For those eager to hurry up and drop a pool in your backyard, be grateful for this chance to slow down. Be especially wary of any company that says it can fit you in right now.

Instead, take the time and spend the money to get help with a plan. There’s a lot to consider and a lot of planning to do to build the pool and the environment that best fits your yard, your vision, and your budget. It may seem like it’s costing you more, but it could save you a fortune in unanticipated costs, delays, and unhappy end results.

Visualizing with Shapes in Three Dimensions is Harder than You May Think

Shape can be a hard thing to get your arms around, but it’s worth taking a moment to look closer before diving into how you’ll shape your perfect WaterSpace.

Try this experiment: Recall your first encounter with the way objects flatten into two dimensions when looking out an airplane window at 30,000 feet. Or go now and look at your house on Google Earth. You might recognize a few outlines from high overhead, but those flat shapes sure don’t look anything like what you’d see on the ground. Yet flat shapes are what we start with when putting your design on paper.

Artists solved the problem of representing the third dimension on a flat surface by using geometry to create perspective, giving viewers the appearance of depth on a flat canvas. Architects provide a heavier line in their overhead plans to indicate height, so that builders know to consult another set of plans for more detail.

When it comes to pools and shape, people naturally think it’s all about the pool shape. For all practical purposes, that’s just two dimensions unless you happen to be swimming under the water. The basic pool presents itself as a flat surface with a geometric shape: rectangle, kidney, a more complicated rectilinear shape, or a free-form organic shape.

But a pool doesn’t sit by itself in a flat environment. The shape forming the entire pool area is really the shape you want to focus on. You want to organize the entire landscape—including the house—into a combination of uses, shapes and views.

All of these shapes are going to naturally involve that third dimension missing from the pool shape: height. Landscape designers distinguish between shape, the two dimensional, top-down view we’ve discussed, and form, the three-dimensional ground view. It’s that ground view where the magic happens.

The action starts with a simple bubble diagram like the one accompanying this article. These sketches may look flat, but to the designer they represent the formation of a vision in three dimensions. In the illustration shown here, the journey (and the view) from the house doesn’t take you straight to the pool but to an inviting pergola.

Like an outdoor living room or dining room, you can relax at the pergola or go on to a fire pit feature on the right or the pool to the left. The path between the pit and pool invites visits in either direction.

The overall theme of this simple bubble diagram is organic. The pool could be any shape that suits the needs of its users, For lap swimmers, for example, a part of the pool needs to lend itself to a swimming lane. For families with children, a water slide is in high demand. And just about everyone enjoys seeing moving water and hearing the sounds of falling water.

Let’s return now to Google Earth: Search on Longwood Gardens and see how much you can discern from far above. If you’re a frequent visitor—like me—you’ll make out some of the major features but others will be hard to see, if visible at all. Then, if you get a chance go to Longwood, take in all its variations in height and three-dimensional shapes. Experience how you’re drawn along a path and have to choose among different journeys. Note how different spaces—even fairly small ones—often come with different themes, like the small desert garden that precedes long rows of brilliant temperate-climate flower gardens.

This contrast of theme and size can fit anywhere. You don’t have to be a DuPont—or even have an estate—to shape special spaces and journeys for your home. I’ve seen a small townhouse backyard, for example, transformed by Philadelphia Landscape Architect Chuck Hess into a memorable WaterSpace.

Your journey can start with a simple two-dimensional bubble design. The key is developing the vision to see those shapes in your mind like you’ll experience them on the ground.

A WaterSpace Bubble Design: Your first step is to visualize where your major features go and how they fit together. The bubbles in these quick drawings don’t represent actual sizes and shapes but help you organize the space.