for eight years when he was the
victim of a chemical explosion.
He lost his breathing capacity, sense of smell, and sense of taste.
chemicals explode in my face,” he says,
with a slight laugh now that the accident
is 30 years behind him. That is when
he began his journey of pool and spa
industry education. Fast forward 15 years
to when he discovered the concept of
biomimicry and how it can be adapted to
pool and spa operations.
With this new insight, Mignault
developed a new business model for his
company, the Quebec-based JEM Arte
& Agua: “Give back life to water to give
back health to people.”
BIOMIMICRY AT WORK
Mignault’s study of biomimicry began
with the work of Viktor Schauberger, an
Austrian forester from the first half of the
20th century who is sometimes referred
to as the Master of Water. Schauberger’s
motto was, “Observe, comprehend, and
imitate nature.”
In the pool, spa, and hot tub industry,
much of the equipment and chemicals
used are already trying to imitate nature.
“UV light is the sun, ozone treatment is
the sky, and water that flows through the
ground percolates, and that percolation
is filtration,” Mignault says.
At JEM Arte & Agua, Mignault’s team
treats their clients’ water differently.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel,”
he says, “but we look at the way pool
equipment is normally aligned, and
we change the alignment to be a more
natural way of treating water. At the end
of the day, we maintain perfect water
quality with up to 70% less chemicals.
Our clients could drink the water out of
their pools.”
He explained that a properly working
pool is like the human body. There are
core parts that the human body needs
in order to function: the heart, the lungs,
the arteries. Pools also have core parts,
but biomimicry doesn’t take away from
the pool’s core. “There are up to 10
pieces of equipment and technology
combined together to make a pool 100%
biomimicry oriented,” he says. “Clients
can start with three of those, and we
can always add on later if they want. We
know how the technologies will affect
the results at the end of the day, and we
know how to compensate for the parts
that the client doesn’t choose.”
Mignault highlights the importance
of understanding the physics behind
the equipment before making these
changes, though. He has taken the
tools and calculations he learned
through GENESIS pool construction
and engineering courses, such as flow
charts and velocity, but changed the
mathematics slightly to get the health-oriented
results he wants.
Sparkling and well-ordered equipment pad built by the team at JEM Arte & Agua.
HEALTH THROUGH WATER
As Mignault’s fellow GENESIS instructor
Kirk Bianchi explained in the March
2024 issue of AQUA Magazine, the word
“spa” is actually an acronym for the Latin
phrase Sanitas Per Aquam, or Health through Water.
Mignault took this phrase to heart
during the pandemic, when he began
the entrepreneurial pursuit of creating
the “Formula 1 of spas,” which he now
calls the VIKTOR series — in recognition
of the inspiration he received from Viktor
Schauberger.
“When we step into water, we bring
200 million microorganisms with us
that will be floating on top of the water,”
Mignault says. The average spa or
hot tub design has a skimmer in one
corner that filters any floating debris,
but all VIKTOR spas have a perimeter
overflow with a Lautner edge design.
“There is no skimmer; the entire
surrounding is a skimmer,” he explains.
“With the perimeter overflow, those
microorganisms are getting out right
away.”
Additionally, Mignault’s spas
incorporate color therapy, isochrone
music, aromatherapy, microbubbles, and
nanobubbles.
Nanobubble technology came to
North America from Japan in the early 2000s. Athletes, such as football players,
would soak in nanospas to treat injured
limbs. They started to notice that if, for
example, they only soaked their injured
leg rather than both legs, the injured
leg that was being treated in the spa
had a healthier skin texture and physical
appearance.
“Nanospa water looks like milk,”
Mignault explains, “but what you’re
looking at is oxygen. It’s like putting
yourself in a hyperbaric chamber. The
water itself is applying pressure on the
body, and since there is extra oxygen
in the water, that oxygen permeates
your skin and makes a complete
detoxification.”
Mignault’s spas can take it to quite
an extreme level of milkiness, but they
also have a microbubble setting where
the bubbles release from the floor of
the spa to aid in relaxation. “It’s a more
sensorial experience,” Mignault says. “It
gives you goosebumps.”
There are also four color zones
for chromotherapy, as well as small
peristaltic pumps that can send in a
variety of odors, such as eucalyptus, for olfactory stimulation.
One piece that Mignault is very
proud of is that the shell of the VIKTOR
spa itself is a speaker. There are no
outside speakers. When you lie down
in the hammock of the spa, your head
is partially underwater, and you can
hear the music that way. “Water is more
conductive than air, so the sound is
brought to your internal ear from your
skull. It brings specific frequencies to
your ear that puts your brain into many
stages of relaxation.”
Mignault’s VITKOR spas, with perimeter overflow and a Lautner edge, create a unique and compelling look.
WELLNESS EDUCATION
After Mignault’s chemical accident
early in his career, he didn’t want his
employees or his clients to be physically
injured by the presence of hazardous
chemicals like he was. He wanted to
become more educated in proper
handling and storage, so he earned his
Certified Pool & Spa Operator (CPO)
certification. Shortly thereafter, when
attending a trade show in Atlantic City,
N.J., to complete his CPO Instructor
training, he met GENESIS Co-founder Brian Van Bower.
As Mignault began to take GENESIS
courses, what really stood out to him
were the stories from instructors like
Bianchi and Feras Irikat. “Before I bought
their technique, I bought their story,” he
explains. “That’s what made them very
good teachers and communicators. The
storytelling they brought to the table was
giving credit to my story, and my story
was giving credit to their story.”
Now, Mignault is a Certified Master
Pool Builder & Design Professional
(Master CBP), having completed more
than 300 hours of GENESIS courses.
He has also found a way to merge
the ideas from Schauberger and the
concepts from GENESIS into his
own success story. “Our success rate
with signing a new client is 97%,” he
says proudly. “The added value is not
immediately tangible, but when you talk
about health, you get people’s attention.”
This year, GENESIS is focusing on
developing new curriculum centered on
wellness. Bianchi will continue to expand
on this topic in this series in AQUA
Magazine; GENESIS Design Faculty
Chair Paul John Boulifard led a webinar
for the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA)
this spring on the scientific power of
water and its healing properties; and
the entire faculty is looking forward to
premiering new courses at the fall trade
shows.
“I have been attending the industry
trade show in Lyon, France, since 1998,
and the Europeans already had an
entire area of the show dedicated to
wellness back then,” Mignault says.
“Today, there is a great opportunity for
GENESIS education to be the leader in
incorporating wellness into our industry.
There are ways to make wellness a
part of every step of the process, from
construction and engineering to design.
We can show students a new business
approach that emphasizes the role
Mother Nature plays, and how the
equipment we use impacts the health
and wellness of our clients.”
The shell of the VIKTOR spa is itself a speaker that vibrates to produce sound which is then conducted through the water to the bather.
