If a kitchen is the heart of a home, today’s pools might be the soul. Top pool designers say that pools are more than just a place to splash with the kids. Great pools serve as meditation room and entertainment focal point — an idealized reflection of nature that combines sight, sound, light and movement into a Zen-like space that can help a homeowner when he wants to either focus inward or reflect outward to see his place in the world.
Over-the-top island retreats with sauna caves, 20-foot waterfalls and televisions in the swim up bars have given way to vanishing edges and zero-entry pools that blur the line between the pool, the horizon and the architecture of the house. The pool design is often integral to the design of the home with architects, landscape architects and pool designers working together to create seamless integrated design that enhances the overall shape of the property.
According to Ed Kahn, editor of Pool and Spa Living and Luxury Pools, water features are more important than ever. “Most people used to think in terms of fountains,” he says, “but I see an increasing use of jets, sheet falls and waterfalls and various takes on moving water.” Another trend Kahn sees is a more subtle use of play equipment. Instead of a diving board or slide, modern design uses shoots and diving rocks that integrate into the design while still creating a safer playing area for the kids.
The best designers, he says, can do it all. Many use CAD design tools to show what your back yard will look like with various designs and configurations, integrating outdoor kitchen and play areas, the reflection pool, the integrated wiring package and the lights that show everything off to advantage. That means that it is more important than ever, he says, to get a great pool designer who knows how to pull it all together.
Skip Phillips owner of the internationally award-winning Questar Pools and Spas from Escondido California, agrees. Sixty percent of his business, he says, is tearing out poorly designed and constructed pools, many that are less than five years old.
It is the package, not just the design that is important, he says. Make sure that your pool builder has the background and education in construction and engineering that can assure that your beautiful design isn’t ravaged by the design element you most love. An overflow design that can’t hold water will quickly lose its aesthetic appeal.
Clients are better-educated and more well-traveled than ever, and that is influencing design. “The U.S. isn’t driving pool design; we are well behind the curve,” he says. “The Indonesians and Europeans have been designing water vessels for at least 3000 years.” Phillips designs pools that owners will love whether or not they ever get wet. “The utilitarian goals of a pool are really second or even third down the line. With good design, the space itself should be so wonderful with audible and reflective qualities that if you never get in you still won’t regret putting in a pool.”
He advises clients to look for an “intellectual package” that coordinates with the home’s architecture on color continuity, balance, scale and structure. A good pool designer can switch gears, he advises. Most architects have a theme, but a pool designer has to be able to go from working with an antebellum mansion to a French château.
Many pool designers emphasize the importance of finding a contractor who is an expert in your soil and climate conditions. Joe Vassallo with Las Vegas-based Paragon Pools is an expert in his region as well as in all the bells and whistles that glitzy Las Vegans demand. Situated in one of the fastest growing housing markets in the country, in his 14 pool-building years he has watched the pool design scene transform.
He loves playing with new technologies that allow him to offer greater safety and convenience or more sophisticated design. New lighting effects, for instance, let a homeowner change the color of the pool at whim; “wet flame” water features can add a dramatic third element to pool design.
Vassallo often installs Fiberstars Jazz Light ™ that uses the same lamp technology found in many luxury cars today. Brighter, whiter light enhances colors creating a brilliant glow throughout the pool. It is also the most energy efficient pool light available with bulbs that offer a 10,000-hour life, adding beauty while saving money.
Safety is always designed into every pool he designs, says Vassallo, who joined with the City of Las Vegas and the Red Cross to sponsor an annual Pool Safety Fair. He would love to see all pools take advantage of the new laser technology that is invisible to the eye, sets off an alarm whenever it is crossed. “It works for burglars as well as little kids,” he laughs.
The alarm system can be retrofitted to an existing pool as well as easily be incorporated into the new integrated wiring packages that many new homeowners are installing both indoors and out. The Jandy AquaLink Control system lets homeowners heat up the spa, turn on water features, control the backyard lighting, see if the cleaner is running and check on their pool equipment from inside the home or from a cell phone or remote computer.
Vassallo has become a leader in salt-water pools, as well, and loves how gentle these pools are on the skin – as well as on the finish materials of the pool. Clients absolutely love the effect when combined with an ultraviolet ozone generator and top-of-the-line filtration system. “It just feels wonderful!” he says.
With all of this technology, advises Vassallo, follow-up service is mandatory and should be performed by the company, not the product manufacturer. “You want equipment and service where if something goes wrong, a technician shows up and you aren’t stuck with a call center who walks you through diagnostics over the phone.”
Scottsdale-based Mike Ferraro of Phoenecian Pools also emphasizes the importance of selecting a pool company that will be with you long term. Like other leading pool designers across the West, his clients want clean, architectural lines that expand their outdoor space.
A specialist in hill design, one of his favorite pools cantilevers over the edge of a cliff in a vanishing edge design that disappears into the horizon. The last 12-feet of the pool are actually suspended in air, he says.
He recommends looking for someone who is familiar with your area so that they can design to your lot and location. “We design, build and maintain our pools and I think doing all three means we understand the workings of a particular system like no one else.”
His clients are requesting pools that incorporate either natural materials like quartzite, travertine and flagstone or glass tiles that reflect the desert light. Zero-edge pools, classic, clean linear design that has a timeless feel is also hot, he says.
Water features are as varied and inventive as possible. Ferraro is using a lot of copper and bronze sculptures with water running from pouring vessels or from hand-carved scuppers that come directly out of the pool wall.
He also likes to integrate big granite boulders that blend in with the surrounding landscape. Stacked stone walls that mimic Anasazi structures can stay dry or become “wet walls” that allow water to subtly trickle through the cracks to imitate a natural stone seep.
“People love old-world looking pools,” he says, “but with a modern twist.”
by Lynn Goya