Articles

A Family’s Space for Outdoor Living in Media, PA

Chris Volk worked with the Cilli family to develop a luxury outdoor living space at their home in Media, PA where the focus is water. “When we started looking for an opportunity to spread out,” Darryl Cilli said, “we knew it wouldn’t be easy, but it had to be in Media.” The town they’d called […]

How Modern Art Brought Us Today’s Hottest Pool Designs

Modern style is the hottest design trend in swimming pools and outdoor living spaces. It’s a style with deep roots in Twentieth Century Modern art. You can see how Henri Matisse contributed to the development and spread this modern style in three museum visits: “The Dance” (1933) at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, “The Swimming […]

Plunge Pools and Swim Spas: Luxury Pools Go Small

Make (Less) Room for these Little Pools (plunge pools) that Turn Small Yards into Posh Daily Retreats When The Wall Street Journal announces plunge pools are, “A Chic Swimming Pool Alternative for Small Backyards,” and a week later The New York Times publishes a plunge pool story, “Don’t Call It a Swimming Pool,” you […]

Is Expert Pool Maintenance a Luxury?

Consider these 3 Risks before You Decide Too many people buy an in-ground swimming pool and then treat paying for routine water and pool maintenance as if it were an optional luxury. I’m in the luxury design/build pool business because—let’s face it—all in-ground pools are luxuries. Yet I see too many pool owners treat their […]

5 Steps to Make a Swimming Pool a Luxury Pool

How do you achieve that ultimate value—the luxury pool effect. In previous articles we’ve looked at the well documented benefits—physical, mental, social and spiritual—that water and swimming pools bring into a home. These health benefits—along with the fun, relaxation, and enjoyment—can add up to what I call a “Luxury Pool Effect.” The feel of luxury […]

LSI and Pool Water Balance Made Easier

Water balance starts with understanding LSI: the Langelier Saturation Index. I admit I’m a nut about maintaining safe and clean pool water. I know how important it is to maintain water that’s good for your pool and for the people in it. What drives me nuts is that it doesn’t have to be so complicated. […]

Is It a Spa or Hot Tub, or Maybe an Ahhhhh Tub?

Do you know when to call it a spa or hot tub? For a long time the words were used interchangeably, but now there’s a clear difference: Hot Tubs are manufactured and free-standing. Spas are custom built and in-ground—often part of a larger pool project. Hot tubs started life as a round, wood vat that […]

We Need to Talk about Pool Construction

It’s time we had a serious conversation about pool construction. We’ve been focused for some time here at the WaterSpace blog on the elements and principles of pool design because that’s the place where you need to start. We started there because design is a topic too many new pool buyers—as well as cookie-cutter pool […]

Connect the Dots to Achieve Unity in Your Landscape Design

This 6th principle of landscape architecture poses a question you need to ask early and often. The Principle of Unity can seem terribly abstract, but it’s really one simple question: Did you connect all the dots in your design? How does your design hang together? This is the question you don’t want to start asking […]

Design for Movement in Your Outdoor Living Space

Eyes move, minds move, and people enter the flow of space. Pools, buildings, and landscapes seem so firmly anchored to the earth that Movement—the fifth of our Six Principles of landscape and architectural design—can be hard to comprehend. Even when you don’t consciously see architectural movement, however, you’ll sense its presence, and you’ll likely find […]