Architects can really help a Koi pond become a great success

Having a Koi pond design done by an architect is great - if the architects in the architectural firm know what they're doing that is...

With the greatest of respect we have seen far too many 'architect designed' Koi ponds that never allow for filtration space. YOU are the one who will end up with a disaster on your hands - so please, get us involved at the planning stage when the plans are still being drawn up. We CANNOT get an ideal design done 'after the fact' - it is simply impossible. If you are already at this stage you're in trouble without knowing it - get hold of us sooner rather than later.

You need to know this if you are wanting a professional Koi pond design. I'll be upfront - it's not the cheapest way to go. But the ideas, input and final output that you will get from a professionally architect designed Koi pond are more than worth the relatively minor investment you'll be making in your dream Koi pond. Architects design and build for the next 20 years - over this life span the investment is money well spent on a Koi pond you can really, truly enjoy.

I have to confess to having some, OK, a lot of sympathy for architects. They are truly professional people in the best sense of the word, studying for 6 years at university and earning a degree that is complex, challenging and professional.

And they are often told to spec and design a "water feature", that then ends up being a Koi pond later with disaster the only possible result.

The word 'architect' I think is abused to an enormous degree with interior architects, exterior architects, design architecture architecturalists and landscape architects popping out of the wood work all over the place. The same abuse doesn't exist for doctors, or lawyers for that matter but it is the architect that carries far, far more responsibility for his work other than perhaps, say, engineers... Everyone knows that architects are just really wannabe engineers (and being an engineer I wouldn't be biased in any way!)...

An professional architect is thus not someone that has done a six week part time course in interior decorating, or a 12 week course designing a garden. Architects design buildings and professional architects have to have a degree, and belong to the institute of architects, a body of professionals that monitor an architect's career - similar to the law society. Except no one ever gets chucked out of the law society...

But did you know that an architect is personally responsible for his work? This means, that if he designs a a building that collapses and kills a hundred people, the architect is accountable. Not the engineer who failed to specify the correct materials, but the architect himself. Compare this to a lawyer...

This is one of the reasons why architects are normally quite good at building Koi ponds. At least, our recommended architects are. A professional architect is aware of his/her responsibilities and thus creates a design that not only fits in with what you want, from an architectural point of view, but with what will work from a sound construction point of view.

Unfortunately, the dynamics of a Koi pond are not something that is often considered by an architect, given a brief to develop a stunning Koi pond in fitting with the surrounding building architecture. Which is understandable - architects build - and whilst their design might be stunning, the lifestyle of a Koi just doesn't enter into the picture.

In fact, it is the lifestyle of the Koi pond that is important as well. Koi are one small part of any Koi pond: algae, water reticulation, circulation, drainage and filter systems are all small parts of a bigger Koi pond whole.

OF FAR more importance is the fact that it is LAW in South Africa that you have plans for your Koi pond. If you do not have plans and you do not lodge them with your local municipal council, you can potentially be held personally liable for any unfortunate accidents relating to your Koi pond. Please! Get your plans drawn and submitted. You do not want to end up in jail because of an accidental drowning. Life will be extremely problematic already and adding further to your woes is not a position you want to find yourself in.