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

Leeuwen, Thomas A.P. Van; Searing, Helen

ISBN 10: 0262220598 / ISBN 13: 9780262220590

Published by MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998

About this Item

First edition 1998, no additional printings listed. Hardcover in light green cloth with DJ. Condition very fine, square and tight book, gift inscription on ffep, no underlinings no highlights no bent page corners. DJ as new, bright, no tears no chips.DJ not clipped. Not a reminder. Square 4to , VI + 321 pages, well illustrated, bibliography, index. Large and heavy book, will require additional postage for priority or international orders.

Seller Inventory # 004103

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Springboard in the Pond: An Intimate History of the Swimming Pool
• Publisher: MIT Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262220598
• ISBN 13: 9780262220590
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Architecture
  • History
  • 1st

About this title

Synopsis

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. In The Springboard in the Pond, Thomas van Leeuwen looks at a familiar hole—the domestic swimming pool—and discovers an icon indispensable to the reading of twentieth-century modernism.

At one level, the book is a rereading of modern architecture that will leave that story permanently altered. At another level, it is the story of the origin and evolution of the private swimming pool as a building type and cultural artifact. And at still another level, it is a material philosophy of water. Van Leeuwen explores the 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 the three prevailing human attitudes toward water: hydrophilia, hydrophobia, and ambivalence. The books many illustrations—drawings, plans, and photographs—come from an unusual variety of sources, creating what is surely the most provocative visual archive of the swimming pool ever assembled.

This 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: sky, water, fire, and earth. The first volume was The Skyward Trend of Thought: The Metaphysics of the American Skyscraper (MIT Press, 1988). The third volume, Columns of Fire: Architecture and Destruction, is currently in preparation.

Review

" At a moment where ' all that is solid' seems precarious, Thomas van Leeuwen's "History of the Swimming Pool" is an heroic and timely attempt to theorize an architecture of the liquid." -- Rem Koolhaas & quot; At a moment where & lsquo; all that is solid& rsquo; seems precarious, Thomas van Leeuwen's History of the Swimming Pool is an heroic and timely attempt to theorize an architecture of the liquid.& quot; -- Rem Koolhaas "At a moment where 'all that is solid' seems precarious, Thomas van Leeuwen's "History of the Swimming Pool" is an heroic and timely attempt to theorize an architecture of the liquid."--Rem Koolhaas