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15 Lap Pools Around the World
July 27, 2015
Get your goggles, kickboard, and flippers ready, we're going swimming!
Competitive swimmer Sydne Didier commissioned Austin Design Inc. to create a 102-foot-long pool house behind her Amherst, Massachusetts, house. Rachael Chase of the firm designed the enclosure for the lap pool where it would otherwise remain frozen for three months of the year. Clerestory windows let in ample natural light, and several glass doors open wide to the outside world.
Courtesy of
David Stansbury
Originally appeared in Skinny Dip
A green house near the coast of El Salvador captures the best of its naturally striking setting—filled with sunlight, invigorating breezes, and sweeping views of lush woodlands. The back patio and lap pool overlooks a swath of forest.
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Originally appeared in Striking Green House with a View in El Salvador
As a young man surfing in Bali, architect David Hertz was impressed by tropical village compounds where indoors and out flow into each other. Hertz transported this idea of an ecological village to Venice, California, where he lives near the beach with his family. The compound—four dwellings connected by bridges and clustered around a courtyard lap pool—is an exuberant presence on a confined city lot.
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Originally appeared in Sustainability in Stages
Layer by layer, a crumbling 18th-century flat in the middle of Barcelona finds new life at the hands of architect Benedetta Tagliabue. One of the most significant architectural developments within Tagliabue’s property is the pool house, which features a shallow lap pool and a wood-burning fireplace.
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Originally appeared in The Barcelona Home Like No Other
A surprisingly modern addition transforms an 1880 bungalow in Adelaide, Australia, into a spacious and sensuous abode. Though the front of the home maintains a traditional facade, the rear is modern eye candy. "I love our pool—it provides a 'yin' element of cooling, moistening, and grounding to the house, in contrast to the warm and dry materials we’ve used elsewhere," says resident Kylie Brammy.
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Courtesy of
James Knowler Photography
Originally appeared in This Luminous Australian Renovation Packs a Lot Into a 23-Foot-Wide Lot
Though the obstacles they faced were formidable, Lisa Sette and Peter Shikany’s perseverance brought them closer together and made their dream home in Phoenix, Arizona, a reality. After months spent researching solutions to make her home’s fabric roof functional, Lisa can finally relax by the pool.
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Originally appeared in Love's Labors Found
Leaving the bustle of Washington, D.C., architect Joe Day and his wife return to California and discovered that life in a single-family dwelling isn't as isolated as they had feared. The aim of Day’s $440,000 renovation to their Silver Lake home was to engage the neighborhood and the city at large by opening up the interior living spaces to the street and adding new outdoor spaces. Day added a lap pool to the existing lush garden in the rear.
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Originally appeared in Way Out West
Designer Greg Natale steered his clients away from the wrecking ball and toward a sensitive renovation for their stacked 1,100-square-foot home outside Melbourne. The renovation called for retaining the home's layout, while making some striking alterations. Natale's skillful renovation reveals how tactical updates can transform an ordinary home into a modern oasis—complete with a yard and lap pool—without knocking it down.
Courtesy of
Greg Natale Design
Originally appeared in A Modern Makeover Spared This Melbourne Home from a Teardown
Matt and Barbara Mooney worked with M Gooden Design, a boutique design firm in Dallas, to build a home out of 14 shipping containers. The 1,000-square-foot ground level is an open plan featuring shipping container doors and concrete floors. Outside, a 40 foot by 10 foot pool is designed to echo the house’s tower with an almost reflection-like alignment.
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Originally appeared in This House Was Built Out of 14 Shipping Containers
In Sweden, architect Bengt Mattias Carlsson created a pavilion adjacent to a residence dating from the late 1800s. The pergola is made from glue-laminated timber beams set atop steel posts; it protects the lap pool from falling pine needles. George Nelson benches offer places to sit.
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Originally appeared in How a 1,000-Year-Old Technique Made This Pavilion
Inspired by their clients’ bold art collection, a pair of architects designs a Hamptons vacation house that subverts tradition. Even the pool is the result of mixed influences: Andrew Weinstein wanted a series of shallow, gently sloping hangout zones; his wife, Amy Weinstein, a former competitive swimmer, needed a full lane deep enough for laps.
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Originally appeared in Art-Filled Hamptons Vacation Home
Situated atop sharp, black a’a rock formed from an eruption of the volcano Kilauea, architect Craig Steely has built his seventh incarnation of the Lava Flow house series for Craig Mayer and his husband, Rick Penland, on Hawaii's Big Island. This home is his first structure dominated by site-poured concrete. The pool juts out perpendicularly from the main house where the land was bulldozed to become level with the concrete pavers.
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Originally appeared in This House Conquers the Big Island in Hawaii
It’s hard to believe that this idyllic house sited in a coastal coconut grove in Nandgaon, India, is a mere hour’s drive from bustling Mumbai. For architect Bijoy Jain, principal at Studio Mumbai Architects, making the most of the muggy locale meant opting for local materials to construct the airy home. The pool that runs between the home's two structures contrasts the choppy white-capped ocean with tranquil charm, making it a favorite spot for the vacationing family of four, who spend weekends here at the retreat.
Designed as a weekend retreat in the mid-1980s for animation producer Lou Scheimer and his wife, Jay, the Ray Kappe–designed house features a two-story atrium and a rooftop deck, complete with lap pool and widow’s walk. Up-sizing from a small bungalow, Kristopher Dukes and Matt Jacobson take a minimalist approach to renovating and furnishing the soaring 5,200-square-foot volume.
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Originally appeared in A Renovated Ray Kappe Abode in Manhattan Beach
Six stories high and crowned with a pool, a town house in Tel Aviv manages to both embrace and provide refuge from the teeming Israeli city. Tall and surprisingly open, the Tel Aviv Town House by Pitsou Kedem Architects continues in the tradition of its Bauhaus-inspired neighbors with a white facade and black window frames.
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Originally appeared in Modern High-Rise Town House in Tel Aviv
Competitive swimmer Sydne Didier commissioned Austin Design Inc. to create a 102-foot-long pool house behind her Amherst, Massachusetts, house. Rachael Chase of the firm designed the enclosure for the lap pool where it would otherwise remain frozen for three months of the year. Clerestory windows let in ample natural light, and several glass doors open wide to the outside world.
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