LOW VOLUME, 2017
Commissioned by Art Papers, Spring 2017 (41.01)
The front yard pool, unlike its counterpart the backyard pool, is on display from the air as well as the street. The above ground pool is an object of desire and a stage for exposure, collaborating with the elevation of the house and the life of the neighborhood. Low Volume reconsiders the conventional ratios and relationships between yard, deck, and pool/water. Here, the deck overtakes the pool volume and adopts its material properties resulting in a formal spill of surface decking that houses a kidney shaped pool within its folds. The kidney shape is tilted 90 degrees limiting its capacity as a vessel and obstructing the view of its profile from above. The pool that is typically understood in plan is now experienced in elevation and section, an effect furthered by the pool’s positioning within the already sunken garden of house’s front yard. Its relationship with the ground makes it simultaneously above ground and in-ground. The view of the water from the air is a sliver of its former volumetric self and can only be measured once one is submerged in it.
Designers: Kelly Bair, Kristy Balliet
Production Team: Ruta Misiunas & Jordan Rife
Low Volume from BairBalliet on Vimeo.
Photography by Spencer G. McNeil
