What’s as important as the dirt a house sits on? That’s an easy question. Water—the water that flows beside it, through it, under it, and that rains down on it (or doesn’t). So in this issue we’re focusing on H2O.
The water that laps at the edge of a site can make the ground worth a king’s ransom. Only a well-designed site plan tailored to the clients’ desires and interests will give them their money’s worth. In “On the Waterfront”, architect Mitch Kunik of Affiniti Architects, who has designed water-oriented custom homes on Florida’s coasts and in the Caribbean for more than 20 years, offers some practical guidelines for creating a home sure to please water-loving clients.
Maybe your clients want a water-oriented house, but their site isn’t anywhere near a body of water. Our new department, “Petscapes,” debuts with a look at backyard fish ponds, a great way to transform a landlocked site into a waterside one.
If the problem with a site is too much water showering down on it, consider installing a rain garden to catch runoff and filter it clean before it flows into streams and rivers. In “Backyard Ecology,”, contributing editor Cheryl Weber has put together an introduction to this useful landscaping technique.
So dive in. You’ll find lots of ideas in this issue sure to please your water-loving clients.
