The business of building and supplying swimming pools is an interesting one for a designer. Some people are happy picking out a fiberglass mold from a magazine or website and then surrounding it with landscaping to create their backyard oasis. Other people can get a custom pool built by on-site. Some of these custom pool builders provide high-design pools built specifically for that location while other builders are content to rebuild the same “better than average” pools repeatedly. Serenity Pools in Baton Rouge, falls somewhere between those two operations. On occasion they would contract me to design custom pools for their more difficult to sell clients. Swimming pools do not typically require a permit so owners will pursue all sorts of interesting designs. Couple that freedom with southern Louisiana’s climate and a growing trend of houses with outdoor kitchens and rooms and my role as a home designer moves into the backyard.

If designing a house for my self is the first reason I went to architecture school, designing a house for my father is definitely the second. When my uncle’s residential contractor company, HCH, acquired several acres to develop, I told my dad to ask for the most difficult parcel available. The lot we had was surrounded by two ponds, two massive live oak trees, and an 18’ drop in slope right where the house should go. After hundreds of yards of dirt were added and we met over lots of dinners, we settled on a ‘C’ shaped house that would terrace the landscape. Using collaged drawings and diagrams, and a constantly changing 3d model, the finished design takes full advantage of the beautiful landscape on all sides. The house took almost a year to build but our efforts paid off; the house has been published in local residential design magazines and won my uncle’s contracting company, HCH, a local builder’s award.

When offered, I jumped at the chance to design a new house for my Aunt and Uncle. Having never designed a real building before – in the sense that what’s going to be built is what’s real – I made certain to work closely with the home owners in the design process. During the interview process I realized that they wanted to live in a park-like oasis but that they were really worried about privacy. Aside from the programmatic requirements, the bulk of the design process explored methods to enclose a private space that would be open to an exterior. The final design provides program clusters connected by a thin hallway.