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Six years
ago, Exterior Worlds was contacted by a couple by the names of
Rick and Susan Ashcroft. They asked if we could do something
about the lagoon-style swimming pool that had been built behind
their house in the late1940s. This style had been very popular
at that time, and it is still a favored by some of the world’s
more lavish resorts. However, ever since the day they had
purchased their home, the Ashcroft’s had always been agitated by
the ostentatiousness of the whole thing, and had finally decided
to have it redesigned as a
natural swimming pool. They wanted their back yard to retain
the feeling of a tropical locale, but lose the touristic element
in favor of that of a cozier, more private corner of paradise.
We agreed
with their sentiments wholeheartedly. Just a cursory glance at
the property confirmed that a natural
swimming pool design was a much better fit for the grade of
the landscape and the surrounding opportunities for vegetation
and lighting. The Ashcroft residence was located on the side of
a hill that sloped down toward a ravine, and the house itself
house was built 40 feet back from the road. The steep grade of
the land posed construction challenges to any type of water
feature, but there was a way to build a natural swimming pool
here that would achieve the aesthetic the Ashcroft’s were
seeking and create a lasting element that required only limited
and very intermittent periods of maintenance.
We began by
stripping the pool down to its shell and building a retaining
wall that offset the grade of the land. We shaped the
surrounding earth around it into a much deeper basin that would
allow water to collect naturally like it does at the base of a
cliff. A series of interlocking pavers was laid around the
perimeter to create a flat surface that extended from the back
of the home to the retaining wall. This is a standard aesthetic
used in most natural swimming pools, but it also served a
special, practical purpose in this instance. Since this area was
subject to heavy land erosion from runoff rainwater, pavers
provided a very efficient way of reconstructing key elements of
the structure every 5-10 years.
The natural
swimming pool now appeared as an inviting portal into a remote
hill country getaway, just a stone’s throw away from the back of
the house. We made it easier to reach by building two series of
stone steps that led down to either side of the water’s edge. We
were careful to avoid making them look too much like stairs.
Instead, we designed them to closely mimic the layers of rock
that often jut from the sides of mountains and dormant volcanoes
on islands all over the Pacific. To further develop this theme,
we placed a large flat stone to serve as a diving area, and we
created a waterfall on either side of it by laying down stones
in a manner that created varying speeds of water.
Our
construction methods here were very unique in comparison to
those of our competitors. We took almost a month to consciously
and deliberately lay each stone by hand. While this may seem
painstakingly detailed to some, the rewards were astonishing,
because our natural swimming pool mimicked Nature in such a way
that it lacked almost all evidence of human engineering, and
looked virtually identical to something you would stumble upon
in the jungle of a tropical paradise.
If you are interested in any high-quality landscape services,
Exterior Worlds has
been providing the high-end residential landscape services and
garden design services discussed above for the Houston and
the surrounding areas including memorial villages (Piney Point
Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village), Tanglewood,
River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area
since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255
For more the 20 years
Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's
fine neighborhoods.
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