Water, Water Anywhere

Architect Glen Irani had wanted a pool ever since he was a kid. When he purchased a property along the Venice canals to build a new home 2 1/2 years ago, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to have one. The challenge: to fit both a spacious new home and pool on the long, narrow, 30-by-95-foot lot. He resolved the problem with a design that suspended part of the home above the pool using slender steel columns.

Now, would there be enough light for the downstairs office studio he planned to locate beside the pool? He did computer solar studies to make sure. Now, thanks to reflections from the water, he never has to turn on lights in the office on sunny days. And when direct light hits the pool, he says, reflected ripples dance on the ceiling in changing shadow patterns throughout the day.

The brightly painted orange-and-blue house displays a playful color scheme devised by Irani and his artist wife, Edith Beaucage. In keeping with the happy hues, a turquoise deck--in glass tile mosaic--surrounds the 8-by-40-foot lap pool and jacuzzi. Steel columns are painted a complementary orange. Round concrete pavers set in a bed of Mexican river rocks create a narrow path between the pool and Irani’s office, which is outfitted with large sliding glass doors that open the room to the water. “I could jump into the pool from the office,” he says. “It’s only 3 feet away.” The pool is fenced by a translucent acrylic panel--a material used in greenhouse construction--which lends privacy but lets in light.

In keeping with the architect’s sustainable “green” building philosophy, the pool is solar-heated and has a saline purification system. In addition, the architect laid the yard with EasyGrass, an artificial turf. “With artificial grass you never have to water, mow or fertilize, and it’s very soft and dry,” Irani says. “If I decide to take a quick swim during the day, I’m never in danger of dragging any wet grass into my office.”

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RESOURCE GUIDE

William Hefner Architecture & Interiors, Los Angeles, (323) 931-1365; John Feldman, KAA Design Group, Los Angeles, (310) 821-1400; Dan Garness, Garness Architecture + Landscape, Los Angeles, (310) 390-2466; Rios Clementi Hale Studios, Los Angeles, (323) 634-9220; Tighe Architecture, Santa Monica, (310) 450-8823; Hagy Belzberg, Santa Monica, (310) 453-9611; George Wittman, Seattle, (206) 275-2259; Glen Irani Architects, Venice, (310) 305-8840; Todd Williamson and James Magni, Magni Design, Los Angeles, (323) 866-0600; Jay Griffith, Venice, (310) 392-5558.