Commentaries, Interviews & Profiles
'One of the longest-standing knocks against the pool and spa industry is that too many designers and builders rely too heavily on convention and seem disinclined to pursue new paths and ideas no matter how compelling they might be.' That was the resounding note with which Mark Holden opened his Currents column in April 2009. He continued: 'All too often, pool and spa professionals tend to keep on specifying and installing equipment they've used for years - even if it's
Our human attraction to water is well documented, observes Lauren Stack, but none of us are automatically comfortable around it, nor do we often learn to swim without access to lessons. That's a pair of issues this article addresses while pointing toward a compelling aquatic future.
‘Those of us in the design and construction industry are engaged in a singularly complicated human endeavor. To make things work,’ noted architect Greg Danskin in a March 2008 WaterShapes feature article, ‘it’s common for many technical disciplines to come together, including soils and structural engineers and contractors and subcontractors as well as architects, interior designers, landscape architects, lighting designers and watershapers – all working in concert to bring form to the goals and aspirations of the clients. ‘These professionals unite in designing spaces that
To gain a larger perspective on what tomorrow holds for our planet and our watershapes, writes James Robyn, start by looking beyond our day-to-day lives to see what history, science and astronomy can tell us -- then consider what it'll take to ensure a long, safe, prosperous future.
‘I’ve written several times in the past about the fact that more and more landscape architects and designers are getting into watershaping. As evidence,’ wrote Brian Van Bower in his Aqua Culture column for December 2007, ‘all you need to do is look at design-award competitions in the pool and spa industry and note the increasing
‘Color is amazing.’ That’s how David Tisherman began his September 2002 “Details” column for WaterShapes. ‘It provides us with some of greatest opportunities we ever have to create spaces that are emotionally evocative and visually compelling,’ he added, ‘yet it is also one of the most difficult design details to understand and put to good and effective use. ‘Trouble is, there’s no easy way to simplify the challenge: Color is indeed a tough nut to crack, and that’s as true
‘Throughout recorded history,’ wrote David Tisherman in the July/August 2002 edition of WaterShapes, ‘people have tried to control the elements in every which way they can. We plant trees to block the wind, build levees to hold back rising river water and dikes to hold back the seas. We build skyscrapers that defy gravity, winds and earthquakes. ‘For all of this ingenuity, however, we sometimes don’t do a very good job. When our efforts to control the elements fail
‘In one way or another,’ declared David Tisherman in his Details column of June 2002, ‘visual acceptance is what makes our world go around. ‘Think about the clothes we wear, the cars we admire, the foods we eat – not to mention interior design, home and office furnishings, landscapes and watershapes. So much of our response to these and other features of our environment,’ he added, ‘is based on
'Is it honest to say that too few of the swimming pools you find in America's backyards are what one could call well built - and that even fewer of them are well designed? I think so,' wrote Brian Van Bower in opening his Aqua Culture column for April 2002, 'because so many of the pools I see run like junk and look like junk.' 'The environment out there is so unfortunate that
Learning by Doing