Kinetic Pond

Designer Nick Berman likes to think of the reflecting pool he built in his clients’ Encino backyard as pure art. The 28-foot-long channel, with a 6-by-6-foot pond turned on its axis, links up visually with a square fountain in the home’s front courtyard. “They’re point to point,” explains Berman. “When you walk into the entry courtyard, you see through the home to the reflecting pond--it shoots your view directly out to the horizon.” From the square pool, water slips quietly over a ledge of cashmere slate, travels down the narrow channel filled with stones, then cascades at the property line into a catch basin below. The reflecting pool doesn’t have any real purpose except a mental one, Berman says. “It’s not functional like a Jacuzzi to soak in or a pool to swim in--it’s definitely there to admire. The whole idea of having a pond by itself without utility is to reflect what’s above and to provide softness and sound for the garden. When breezes arise, the water’s surface ripples and is constantly changing like a piece of kinetic art.”

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Water Feature

REFLECTING POOL AND CHANNEL

Designer: Nick Berman, Berman Rosetti, Los Angeles, (310) 476-6242.

Conceit: Water as art and soft music.

Sustainability: “It’s a small water feature; it only loses what evaporates. It’s not much of a loss if you compare it to having a lawn. And it’s surrounded by a drought-resistant garden. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’d give it a 4.”--Nick Berman

Water Audio: “Above a tickle and below a roar.”--N.B.