To Infinity And Beyond!

Narrower, Shallower, And With Surfaces That Stretch As Far As The Eye Can See: The Latest Swimming Pools Are Refreshingly Architectural.

- Tim McKeough

FAUX GROTTOES, CASCADING WATERFALLS, AMOEBA shaped outlines, corkscrew waterslides, and athletically sprung diving boards—pool design has long been a fertile font of hedonistic experimentation. But the latest trend in upscale pools reveals a different impulse: a back-to-simplicity, less-is-more desire to create watery retreats that position the pool as a beautiful, integral part of a home’s architecture or a cohesive element of the larger landscape.

“It’s more of a reflecting pond in the garden,” says designer Madeline Stuart, noting that she has recently been working with numerous clients on longer, narrower rectangular pools. “They would rather have something that’s elegant and narrow and that doesn’t overtake the yard. The idea of this ginormous pool that can accommodate dozens of people—that’s for the YMCA.”

Devon Dobson, president of Connecticut-based bespoke-pool company Litchfield County Pools, has seen the same thing. “We’re not doing grottoes or diving boards,” he says. “And we’ve been shifting away from the standard 20-by-40-foot pool by slimming and extending the proportions. Some are only 12 feet wide—a very slick look.”