MOCK ROCK

With its stone walls, craggy cliffs and azure depths, this swimming pool suggests a stream-fed pond in the Sierra, not a suburban backyard in Los Angeles. But however naturalistic it appears, this ravine is entirely fake--designed, engineered and fabricated by Philip diGiacomo, one of the world’s premier creators of faux rock environments. When diGiacomo set out to design this pool, he wanted to enhance the site and create a secluded, inviting outdoor environment for developer Kenneth Kai Chang and his family. He envisioned formations soaring 22 feet that would camouflage a retaining wall built into the hillside.

Although real rock is always an option in the landscape, diGiacomo prefers his own “stone” because it projects the majesty of nature without destroying it. And real rock is hard to work with, he explains. Not only is it extremely heavy and expensive, the effect is also often not as graceful as what nature yields. “When you pile real rocks up in a garden,” says diGiacomo, “you have a man-made architectural sculpture.” In contrast, he adds, formations produced by his 30-year-old Azusa company don’t seem as contrived.

Projects begin with the precise scale models that diGiacomo makes in his Sherman Oaks studio. By creating plastic molds of individual rocks, cutting them up and reassembling them in countless ways, he can design whole settings that are dynamic and full of life. “My aim,” he says, “is to capture something in the process of change, not just a static pretty picture.” Once the molds are coated with a thin layer of concrete, the resulting shells are installed on site and filled with concrete--about 260 tons for the Chang pool. DiGiacomo’s staff then applies acrylic paints, carefully simulating the effects of weather and age. But as technical as rock-making may be, diGiacomo, who has designed formations for Kew Gardens in London and the Oakley headquarters in Irvine, is still inspired by the simple eloquence of stone and considerations of family life. “I wanted a natural pool here, but one that was safe and hospitable for kids.”