What landscape designers would like pool builders to know to make their collaboration more effective

Two different trades which focus on the same goal: create an ideal garden. Landscaper Benoit Brissinger shows how we can work together on pool designs!

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Two different trades which cohabit and focus on the same goal. Pool builders and landscape designers both want to create ideal surroundings for their clients. Over the years, their clients increasingly express their expectations for garden layouts, which is why there is a pool building boom in France. To satisfy these needs we have to build bridges between these two trades! Landscape designer Benoit Brissinger, who has brought many pool projects to life shows how we can work together on pool designs in a friendly way!

Pool builders and landscape designers can work together without competition

Benoit Brissinger has been creating gardens for over 30 years. He says there are three classic cases when pools are involved. “The worst-case scenario is when no landscape designer is contacted as the pool builder prefers to do everything by himself. We may also be called in after the pool has been built. In this case no collaboration is possible. The third and most intelligent approach to a landscape meeting the client’s requirements is to work with a landscaper from the initial phase of the pool design project.” 

It is vital to change the game rules to adapt to new needs for coherence in projects for clients. Working together is what will ensure long-term success for pool builders who should no longer look on landscape designers as competitors. “Today’s customers want turn-key projects. What they want is a new fully-fitted living space like a new lounge, for example. But we can’t just supply a sofa for the lounge and leave the clients to find a matching table! We all have our specific skills but we should work hand in hand to give clients exactly what they want.”

These comments echo the report from the FFP on new customer expectations and their average budget which now includes everything in and around the pools themselves. 

Landscape designers add to profits when creating gardens and pools together

As the core business of landscape designers is laying out gardens, it seems logical to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” as they are more likely to be able to ensure correct integration of pools into gardens. And pool builders have the skills in pool design techniques and confirm the feasibility of projects imagined by landscape designers.

“Pool builders can benefit from the very particular relationship landscape designers have with the living world and which can impact landscaping choices during the construction of a swimming pool. The landscape designer will know, for example, what types of trees or shrubs to plant around pools to provide sufficient shade, but protecting the water from soiling by dead leaves” Benoit Brissinger explains.

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And never forget that landscapers are skilled in earthworks and masonry. Rather than calling in a mason, working with landscape designers creates true value-added as they view gardens overall – and the way the owners will use them!

Get landscape designers involved in the initial pool design phase 

Set out clearly who does what and who controls what at the outset of the project. Benoit Brissinger says “when a pool builder works with a landscape designer, it is usually the landscaper who should has the last say and the responsibility of the work done by the other suppliers such as sanitation, electricity, masonry… Because all these choices have an impact on the landscape designer’s work and impact the final look of the garden!”

This is why it is vital to include the landscape designer at the start of the pool design phase – and to imagine the overall garden to encompass the pool. Architects often work with landscape designers before the creation of a house! “We have more and more customers who ask us where to place their new house on their land. The house must take into account the constraints and opportunities of the surroundings, and not the reverse. It is thanks to this preliminary reflection that the pool can be south-facing, for example!” notes Benoit Brissinger. And apparently the site of their pool is one of the major concerns of clients.

Rather than stealing pool builders’ work, landscape designers can contribute a lot. This synergy is also observed during our trade shows, where exhibiting landscape designers increasingly visit Piscine Global Europe and pool builders increasingly visit Paysalia landscaping show. What they are all looking for is how best to meet the complex demands of their clients – always combining pools with friendly landscaped surroundings!


© Photo credit: toa555 / stock.adobe.com

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