The Question Seldom Asked: Where to Place Your Pool?

“You can’t un-pour the concrete,” Chris Volk will tell you. In fact, there’s not much you can do, if you discover too late, that your pool should be in a different location. That’s why pool placement is the first question to ask when you’re contemplating a new swimming pool. It’s why you start with the pool in the first place when planning an outdoor living project.

The default location bias

Unfortunately, the default location many pool builders select is the same spot homeowners habitually choose: the middle of the yard. It seems so obvious; everyone puts the swimming pool in the middle. Isn’t the pool supposed to be the center of attention?

Actually, a pool draws attention in any number of locations, and those alternative places can solve some major problems:

The traffic nightmares: A pool in the middle can become an obstacle. Navigating to a garden becomes awkward. Kids have to walk around the pool to get to their play area. Your trip to a tool shed or garage gets to be a bother. When people gather, you’ve got traffic jams in your backyard.

Awkward shapes and sizes: Depending on the size and shape of your yard, a pool in the middle cuts up the surrounding yard into odd-shaped spaces, often too small to hold the things you really want. There’s not enough room left to properly fit both people and that big pergola. The lounge chairs are so crowded that you have to move one to lie on the other. Not an easy move if the other is already occupied. A foot path feels too narrow and too close to the pool.

It just doesn’t feel right: Even if a pool in the middle doesn’t create a physical barrier, it can disrupt the unity of your landscape design. You may not know why, but you’ll sense the lack of balance—it just feels uncomfortable.

No room for empty space: A pool in the middle often leaves little room for empty space. Often called negative space, empty space gives you room to breathe. It optimizes air circulation, eases the movement of people, and makes space for your eyes to rest. The key to empty space is to group the things that fill the space so there’s more open space to circulate in, to move people and air in an orderly manner.

Explore before you pick your space

Sometimes the center is the right place for your pool. But before you go there by default, take a walk through your property with your designer. Free yourself to consider what you really want to do in that space, how you want it to look and feel, how others will use it. Then allow your pool designer to offer options that make the best use of your space and achieve what you desire.

Important things to know

• Check your middle-of-the-yard bias: Your pool needs to go where it best fits your yard, including all the ways you want to use your yard. Often, your best answer isn’t the middle of the yard.
• Plans for the pool come first: Put the pool right in the right place, and all the elements fit together. As Volk warns, “you can’t un-pour concrete.” Plan your pool carefully, and plan it first.

 

This post is based in part on an article originally published on TheWaterSpace blog, “Water and Space: Why the Best Pool Designs Start with the Space.”