global trends

Last month, I did my usual annual roundup of books that feature custom residential swimming pools.  I must confess that I deliberately withheld one such book from the usual summary treatment because it was just too good for me not to give it a full column's attention this time around. The book - Infinity Pools by Ana G. Canizares (Collins Design, 2006) - is one of the best on pools as a design genre that I've ever seen.  In fact, one of the few things I don't like about it is the title, because I've always preferred the term "vanishing edge."  That quibble aside, I think she's done a terrific job of presenting what has to be the most powerful, influential design look of the past 20 years.  More important, she manages to do so without making these pools seem a visual cliché. As is demonstrated repeatedly