Solution
Reflecting pools
The plane of water widens the site: what stands gains another, inverted.
Introduction
Reflecting pools expand the space. They create a mirror. They reflect sculptures or structures that float above, or that sit beside. The site gains a second body, lying down, without growing in plan.
They are made with tanks and with dark-bottomed lakes. The mirror effect is perfected with an overflowing tank: the blade leaves the edge and the surface tautens, ready to return the architecture.
What sets them apart
What is seen is not the jet in the air. It is the plane. The piece beside, the piece floating, the façade, the tree: each finds another, inverted. The dark bottom erases the tank and leaves the reflection.
Combined with other effects, contrasts of stillness and laminar water with turbulence are created, or stillness is reinforced with jets in laminar regime. The mirror remains the ground of the composition.
The overflowing edge stretches the surface. The tank ceases to be read as a vessel and is read as a single plane. They are an element synonymous with luxury: a perfect, well-executed reflecting pool creates a unique and refined setting.
Where they belong
- SquareA plane at the scale of those who cross, returning the façade and the sculpture.
- BuildingWater at floor level, dilating the atrium, the courtyard, the workplace.
- HotelAt the entrance or in the courtyard, the building read twice, without competing with it.
- GardenThe same vocabulary, at the scale of the private grounds.
Example of this typeRua Vítor CordonLisboa