ARTICLES Archives - Page 249 of 315

The Butterfly Garden

With everyone's thoughts turning to spring, it's an opportune time to think about new ways to enhance our garden designs. In addition to considering basic components that lay the groundwork for designs, I'd like to suggest looking for more specific ways to define and personalize our clients' spaces. You might explore gardens made for entertaining, for example, or spaces free of allergy-aggravating plants. One prospect I've been considering lately (and will discuss here in detail) is ways of attracting beneficial insects to my gardens - specifically butterflies. I enjoy watching butterflies float through my backyard, gently land on their favorite flowers and then spread their wings to reveal

Concerted Efforts

When I think about all the people I know from the mainstream pool and spa industry, one of the things that characterizes many of them is a strong, independent spirit. That's a positive, I think, but there's a possible downside in the fact that many of them are also convinced that theirs is the best (or only) way - and they certainly don't cotton to the idea of working closely with people from outside their own organizations. I can appreciate that sort of independent mindset in many ways, but from where I sit, it's clear to me that this concept of the lone-wolf pool builder is losing ground fast. As I've stated in these pages before, the nature of modern watershaping is making ours a more collaborative business, and I for one believe that those of us who embrace the idea of teamwork are

Personalities Plus

One of the most fascinating aspects of watershaping is the broad array of personalities that define the industry. From my perspective, getting to know those who contribute to these pages is a process of discovery that makes preparing every issue a

The relationships among plumbing size, water flow, pressure and head are fundamental to the science of hydraulic design, notes Steve Gutai, our resident hydraulics expert. Although the mathematics defining those relationships can be complex, he stresses the fact that the basic concepts driving the science are something that anyone charged with designing complex systems should understand and apply with each and every project.

Balanced Force

Working successfully with hydraulic systems requires two things: Understanding the definitions of the basic factors involved in hydraulic calculations and seeing how those values relate to and influence each other in the real world. The last installment in this series of articles focused on the relationship between flow and velocity with respect to water. The related concept we’ll explore this time takes our understanding of that key relationship a step farther by exploring a specific pair of additional relations summarized by

Set high on the bluffs overlooking Costa Rica’s Pacific shoreline, this composition in water, tile and vanishing-edge drama at its most spectacular is his best work to date, asserts watershaper Juan Roca. When it first appeared on the magazine’s cover late last year, it was still under construction. Now it is complete, he says, which leads him to share new images of his masterpiece in modern design and high-caliber watershaping.

Floating on Sunshine

'I want the house to look as though it is floating on water." That was what architect Victor Canas told me when I was called out to visit this site on the northwestern coast of Costa Rica. It was a brilliant idea, certainly one that befitted the spectacular mountaintop setting and its breathtaking 360-degree views of rugged coastline, forest greenery and assorted perspectives to horizons in all directions. I had the advantage in this case of

Developing watershapes and landscapes for residential clients can become an incredibly personal undertaking. The project featured here, for example, revolved around a client whose love of color and whimsy opened the door to landscape designer Colleen Holmes’ involvement in a lengthy, joint quest for vivid materials and playful detailing for a setting that defies adequate description unless you look at it through the client’s own eyes.

Serious Whimsy

This project was all about fun and finding ways to infuse watershapes and the overall landscape with childlike senses of playfulness and wonder. At a glance, of course, it's obvious that this particular approach wouldn't work for too many clients, but in this case, we were working with a woman who wanted her yard to express her love of color, her sense of humor and her unparalleled inclination toward the unusual. From our first meeting, I knew that this was someone who wouldn't settle for anything that even approached the ordinary. Maybe it was the 12-foot-tall fiberglass chicken she'd placed in her front yard or the life-size hippopotamus in the backyard or her wildly eclectic taste in art and interior furnishings or her fittingly off-beat

Pyrotechnic-effects expert Karl Nettmann has been involved with creating dramatic flame effects for more than a dozen years, first for television and film productions and now in landscapes and other ‘real world’ spaces. Here, he discusses the range of effects that can be achieved using fire, the technology behind common systems and basic safety considerations that must be accommodated no matter the simplicity or complexity of an effect.

Flames On

As part of my work on movies and television shows through the past dozen years, I've developed a range of special effects that focus specifically on fire. For the science fiction hit Men In Black, for example, I was charged with devising the flame-spewing weapons wielded by Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in a spectacular scene in which they shoot down a flying saucer. That system involved a range of safety issues along with devising a specially formulated fuel (alcohol mixed with various metals) to create blue flames as well as a combination of inert gases and electronic control systems that were used to extinguish the fire and protect the actors. As is the way with so much in Hollywood, an on-screen sequence that lasts just a couple of seconds took my team

Color Keys

Every once in a while, I run across an area of design theory or philosophy that is so fundamental that I'm left to wonder how I've been able to do what I do for a living without a complete understanding of it. Color theory is one such field of study. For a long time now, I've known that the factor that very often makes or breaks a project is not the price of the materials or the presence of bells and whistles, but rather how well the colors work, both with each other and in the context of the overall setting. Even simple projects with modestly priced materials can be ranked among the beautiful if the colors work. By the same token, there are extremely elaborate projects that fail to live up to their potential (or fail altogether) when color choices are off base. My sense that this was something I needed to know more about led me to

Color Keys

Every once in a while, I run across an area of design theory or philosophy that is so fundamental that I'm left to wonder how I've been able to do what I do for a living without a complete understanding of it. Color theory is one such field of study. For a long time now, I've known that the factor that very often makes or breaks a project is not the price of the materials or the presence of bells and whistles, but rather how well the colors work, both with each other and in the context of the overall setting. Even simple projects with modestly priced materials can be ranked among the beautiful if the colors work. By the same token, there are extremely elaborate projects that fail to live up to their potential (or fail altogether) when color choices are off base. My sense that this was something I needed to know more about led me to

Perfect Forms

One of the things I've referred to repeatedly through the years is my interest in quality forming for watershapes. I look at it this way: If the job is about creating quality reinforced-concrete structures, then precisely controlling their dimensions and contours stands at the very heart of the art and craft of watershaping. And all I'm recommending here is simply following the lead of the experts who install building foundations and structural walls by using completely rigid materials and support frameworks. To drive that point home, I want to discuss the forming of one specific detail - and define a right way of getting it done. One of my trademarks is the fact that I build many pools that are