concrete
It's a setting of searing beauty and now features a home that is unquestionably a work of art. Designed by renowned architect Helena Arahuete of Lautner & Associates (Hollywood, Calif.), the structure sits on a privately owned, 2,000-foot-tall mountain known as Twin Sisters Peak - just part of an 1,800-acre estate in Solano County, Calif., that offers clear vistas of the Pacific Ocean, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Sacramento Valley, Napa Valley and the Sierra Madre Mountains as you turn around the compass. In the great tradition of "organic architects" from Frank Lloyd Wright through to Arahuete's mentor and long-time collaborator, the late John Lautner, the home takes full advantage of its setting, crowning the mountaintop with a glass-and-concrete hexagon that at once beautifies and harmonizes with the landscape. So fascinating is this structure and so prominent is its location that, during construction and ever since, private
The combination of concrete and steel is the currency of most modern construction, and there's a simple economic explanation for that fact: The affordability and availability of the basic ingredients of cement, aggregate, water and rebar have made their combination viable for use in countries the world over. Used together, especially when the cementitious product comes in the form of pneumatically applied concrete, reinforced concrete is incredibly flexible and can be used to create almost any shape we might imagine. And in the case of pneumatic application, those shapes can largely be created without the use of traditional concrete forms. Indeed, it's a construction matrix that can be used in such a way that the contours of the soil dictate the shape of the structure, giving the watershaper almost unlimited flexibility. It's even fair to say that
As modern building materials have been developed, we humans have been remarkably proficient at applying them in ways that go well beyond the vision of their inventors. Such is the case with roofing membranes, which now are widely used as liners for backyard streams and ponds. It's understandable that landscape designers and contractors have taken to these rubber liners. After all, they make pond and stream construction inexpensive and easy. But from the perspective of the Japanese gardener or quality watershaper, convenience and affordability alone do not qualify a material for use. Instead, standards of durability and enduring
It's not too unusual to replace all of the plumbing, equipment and electrical lines as part of a swimming pool renovation project. It's quite another story, however, when you need to make sure all of it happens without disrupting the deck surrounding the vessel. As mentioned in my last two "Details," that's precisely what we've been asked to do in renovating a 70-year-old pool in the historic Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The presence of a beautiful, valuable, imported limestone deck means that we've had to do all of our work from inside
Of all the things I've learned in my work as a watershape designer and builder, one particular point stands out: When it comes to ensuring quality results and a project's success, there's absolutely no substitute for good supervision! I say this knowing that most job sites run by people in the pool industry are inadequately supervised if they're supervised at all. Yet experience shows, time and time again, that while complete, professional plans are part of success and that great subcontractors are essential, constant oversight is the absolute
From the start, this project was meant to be something truly special - a monument symbolizing the ambition of an entire community as well as a fun gathering place for citizens of Cathedral City, Calif., a growing community located in the desert near Palm Springs. "The Fountain of Life," as the project is titled, features a central structure of three highly decorated stone bowls set atop columns rising into the desert sky. Water tumbles, sprays and cascades from these bowls and other jets on the center structure, spilling onto a soft surface surrounding the fountain. All around this vertical structure are sculpted animal figures - a whimsical counterbalance that lends a light touch to the composition and opens the whole setting to children at play. I've been building stone fountains for 18 years, and I've never come across anything even close to this project with respect to either size or sheer creativity. Making it all happen took an unusually high degree of collaboration on the part of the city, the artist, the architects and a variety of
From the start, this project was meant to be something truly special - a monument symbolizing the ambition of an entire community as well as a fun gathering place for citizens of Cathedral City, Calif., a growing community located in the desert near Palm Springs. "The Fountain of Life," as the project is titled, features a central structure of three highly decorated stone bowls set atop columns rising into the desert sky. Water tumbles, sprays and cascades from these bowls and other jets on the center structure, spilling onto a soft surface surrounding the fountain. All around this vertical structure are sculpted animal figures - a whimsical counterbalance that lends a light touch to the composition and opens the whole setting to children at play. I've been building stone fountains for 18 years, and I've never come across anything even close to this project with respect to either size or sheer creativity. Making it all happen took an unusually high degree of collaboration on the part of the city, the artist, the architects and a variety of
I'm amazed at how few watershapers keep the size and shape of the average body in mind or consider the science of ergonomics when they design projects for their clients. Just think about how much more we can do to increase their comfort and enjoyment by doing so, particularly when it comes to custom concrete spas. Take a look at the average spa attached to the typical pool: On a great many of them, you'll see a cantilevered deck around the edges. From the perspective of
Looking for inspiration can be like mining for gold. You sift and pan through mountains of muck before unearthing a nugget of real value. And when you do come upon a resource that teaches and inspires you to reach for greater heights of creativity in your designs, the payback is a hundred-fold. Knowing where to look helps, and that's what this new column is all about. The first book I'll discuss is an unexpected treasure of incalculable value. Before I read The Architecture of John Lautner (text by Alan Hess, photographs by Alan Weintraub, published by Rizzoli, New York), I couldn't
Helena Arahuete joined the staff of John Lautner's architectural firm in the early 1960s, at a point where he was turning out some of his most spectacular work. Indeed, Lautner can indisputably be said to have designed some of the most beautiful and unusual homes built in the second half of the 20th Century. An apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright's who studied with the master at Taliesen, Lautner was an exponent of the philosophy and discipline known as "Organic Architecture," an approach Arahuete, now an eminent architect in her own right, has continued to use and refine while running the firm that still bears Lautner's name. She is now one of the world's leading practitioners of Wright's and Lautner's approach to creating unique structures that are intricately and intimately tied to their surroundings. She is also so firm a proponent of the integration of watershapes into those architectural forms that in April 2000, she carried her message to the first Genesis 3 Level II Design School, held in Islamorada, Fla. - and welcomed an opportunity to present some of Lautner's work here by way of defining the place watershapers have at the design table with
