Designing Beautiul Fountains and Waterfeatures
Beautiful water features and fountains must be architecturally appropriate, trouble free and low maintenance, pleasing to all the senses, and cost effective to operate. To do this we recommend following the following steps to this process.
1. Initial discussion with regards to budget, water and light effects, physical size, tastes, architecture, experiences, and safety.
2. Site visit or review of plans and models to further discuss above items and to gather information with regards to the site, and existing elements. At this point we open a broad conceptual discussion about what would make you happy both functionally and aesthetically. Discussion about equipment location and site issues such as wind, splash, noise and light levels, human interaction, operational cycles, and levels of animation
3. Initial conceptual design shown using perspective drawings and 3D modeling. Presentation Feed back and further discussion.
4. Concept revision and preliminary budgets, presentation and further conversation.
5. The decision to enter into a design contract which would then engage our services and allow us to gather information that could be used for the creation of permit drawings, final pricing, engineering, hydraulic and mechanical design, fabrication, and detailed layouts, perspectives, aesthetic, and lighting effects .
6. In some instances mock ups are created at this point to give clients a better sense of the effects the water will create and over all visually understanding of the project. These mock ups can be wood, clay, fiberglass, acrylic, or and number of other materials that can be assembled cost effectively to create the desired effect and help bring to light any issues that need to be addressed before final drawings are complete.
7. Drawing and design creation and completion process with further discussion and presentations as needed.
8. Materials selection, with particular attention to visual impact and effects on the waters level of reflection, price, longevity, maintenance issues, color theory, texture, control locations and audio or video devises.
9. Contract pricing and revision.
10. Construction contract creation and Permitting. We have found this method to be very cost effective since it allows us to manage a client expectation of what it will cost to create the feature they are interested in. They have an excellent understanding of what the effects and visuals of the fountain will be before they spend a great deal on document creation. We refer to this as cost driven design and find that in the end it gives our clients the absolute best value for their money.