Articles

Rhythm Brings Order to Your Outdoor Space

How Landscape and Architecture Set the Tempo in Space Much as Emphasis sets the stage and brings focus to your WaterSpace, Rhythm—the fourth of Six Principles of Design—helps to coordinate all the pieces. Rhythm provides an underlying tempo that people sense. Without rhythm the world around is chaos. Space as a place of comfort and […]

How Emphasis Sets the Scene for a Large Country WaterSpace

Emphasis: Setting the Stage for Outdoor Entertaining You feel the good mood approaching as you enter the covered porch at the rear of this country home. Whether you’ve arrived for a daytime pool party or an evening dinner, you’ll likely be greeted by enticing aromas rising from the food prep area—set below ground level so […]

The Art of Emphasis: How Focus Adds Appeal to Your Outdoor Living Space

Emphasis: It’s like creating a stage for the stars of your WaterSpace Design. If you’ve recently sold or read about selling a house, you’re probably familiar with the growing use of professional staging to lift a property’s value. The secret of staging rests in part on the art of Emphasis, the third of the six […]

Whisper and Shout: Use Contrast to Add Interest to Your WaterSpace Design

Things get livelier when you add contrast to your outdoor living design Wherever you add an unexpected change in color, or shape, size, or texture, you’ve got contrast. In this article on the second principle of architectural and landscape design, we’ll look at how contrast helps us achieve that delicate dance between the comforts of […]

Keep Your Balance: the First Principle of Good WaterSpace Design

Use balance to pull together all the elements in your outdoor living space Just as we can’t stand erect without balance, humans can’t stand an environment lacking a sense of balance. Like our physical balance, we don’t consciously notice balance in built spaces. Until it’s missing. Then it may be too late. Balance in 3-Dimensions […]

Design Choices: Follow these 6 WaterSpace Design Principles

We all want to have design choices, to make our own choices. But have you ever been overwhelmed by too many choices? It happens a lot with the abundance of choices we have in America, and it seems to happen daily, now that we’re buying so much online. Believe me, it’s going to happen frequently […]

Philadelphia’s Fairmount Water Works – America’s Most Famous WaterSpace

‘A Place Wondrous to Behold’: How Philadelphia’s Place for Pumping ‘Utility Water’ Became America’s Most Famous WaterSpace In the mid-19th century, Philadelphia’s Fairmount Water Works was a world famous tourist attraction. It was the second most visited attraction in America (first place went to that most famous “water feature,” Niagara Falls). Upon his visit in […]

Take a Dive Into the Science of Water

Let’s look at the science of water. This article is the second in the “Just Add Water” series inspired by Wallace J. Nichols, author of “Blue Mind” and founder of the Blue Mind movement We all know water is H2O—two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen—but very few appreciate just how strange and magical the chemical […]

LED the way: Light your Nighttime WaterSpace with New Outdoor LEDs

A host of new LED lights are making outdoor lighting more accessible, affordable, and a lot safer than those 120-volt wires running in conduit under your garden or patio. Now is the best time ever to upgrade the lighting in your outdoor living space. Before you click “buy” on that online order, however, take time […]

Just Add Water: The Science of Water and Wellbeing

Let’s look at the Science of Water and Wellbeing. This is the first in a series of articles inspired by Wallace J. Nichols, a PhD who has turned his passion for water into his life’s work