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

Author:   Thomas A. P. van Leeuwen
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9780262720328


Pages:   304
Publication Date:   28 February 2000
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.

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


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Overview

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 artefact. 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: hydrophilia, 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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Thomas A. P. van Leeuwen
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 20.30cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 26.70cm
Weight:   1.111kg
ISBN:  

9780262720328


ISBN 10:   0262720329
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   28 February 2000
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.

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Reviews

The Springboard in the Pond is a bracing intellectual plunge. A searching exploration of manners, morals, and darker truths in cultural and architectural history, it is both insightfully serious and wildly funny. --Thomas S. Hines, Los Angeles Times [R]ichly written and generously illustrated... van Leeuwen succeeds in showing us the depths beneath the tinest ripples of history. --Phil Patton, Civilization


""" The Springboard in the Pond is a bracing intellectual plunge. A searching exploration of manners, morals, and darker truths in cultural and architectural history, it is both insightfully serious and wildly funny."" Thomas S. Hines , Los Angeles Times""[R]ichly written and generously illustrated... van Leeuwen succeeds in showing us the depths beneath the tinest ripples of history."" Phil Patton , Civilization ""At a moment where 'all that is solid' seems precarious,Thomas van Leeuwen's History of the Swimming Pool is an heroicand timely attempt to theorize an architecture of the liquid."" Rem Koolhaas "" The Springboard in the Pond is a bracing intellectual plunge. A searching exploration of manners, morals, and darker truths in cultural and architectural history, it is both insightfully serious and wildly funny."" Thomas S. Hines , Los Angeles Times ""[R]ichly written and generously illustrated... van Leeuwen succeeds in showing us the depths beneath the tinest ripples of history."" Phil Patton , Civilization"


Author Information

Thomas A.P. van Leeuwen is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Leyden.

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