Odessa · 2024
Odessa lagoon
An acre of oak canopy where a geometric pool would have looked imported. Freeform, dark interior, and a deck that follows the trees rather than clearing them.
The build
The clients had bought the property for the oaks and were not willing to lose any of them. Three mature trees sat inside what would have been the obvious pool footprint.
The shape came out of the root zones. We surveyed the critical root radius of each tree, drew the shell to miss all three, and the resulting curve is the reason the pool looks like it was there before the house. The deck steps around the trunks in shellstone, which stays cool enough for bare feet under canopy shade.
A dark pebble interior under heavy shade is a risk, because it reads as black rather than as depth when the light never hits it directly. We compensated with more lighting than a pool this size needs, aimed across the surface instead of up from the walls.
One detail
Excavating inside a root zone
You cannot bring a full-size machine within the critical root radius of a mature oak and expect it to survive. The last eight feet on the tree side came out with a mini excavator and by hand, and the shell wall there is thicker to make up for a narrower footing. All three oaks are still standing two years on.
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