The Springboard in the Pond: Intimate History of the Swimming Pool

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VG bright copy in publishers cloth in like dustjacket. 321pp. Illustrated throughout. 1st edition of detailed title. Although others have written eloquently on the relationship of water to built form, until now no one has investigated the swimming pool as a quintessentially modern and American space, reflecting America's infatuation with hygiene, skin and recreation. This text looks at the domestic swimming pool and discovers an icon through which to read 20th-century modernism. At one level, the book is a rereading of modern architecture that seeks to alter its story. At another level, it is the story of the origin and evolution of the private swimming pool as a building type and cultural artifact. At yet another level, it is a material philosophy of water. Van Leeuwen explores that human relationship to water from a variety of viewpoints: social, religious, artistic, sexual, psychological, technical, and above all architectural. Throughout the book he weaves a series of analogies to three emblematic animals - frog, swan and penguin - that represent three prevailing human attitudes towards water: hydorphilia, hydrophobia and ambivalence. The book's many illustrations - drawings, plans, and photographs - come from an unusual variety of sources. The book is the second in a planned tetralogy by the author, with each volume centered on the relationship of architecture to one of the four classical elements. ISBN 0262220598. N° de ref. del artículo PJH25137

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