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Project Name: Woodland Swimming House

Location: Oxfordshire

Date Completed: July 2015

Architect: Giles Lovegrove

This project includes an Oak Framed Spa and recreation building with fully glazed pool house. The clients of the 16th Century Cottage wanted to add a recreation building to the property containing pool, spa, and cinema facilities.

The project involved the creation of a new building to house a unique glass enclosed pool and spa facilities. The main building drew on the language of the previous oak framed garage building and provides a contemporary reinterpretation of the oak framing and catslide roof common to this typology. Additional space is gained through a mezzanine bedroom and basement, which contain the pool equipment, a large wood chip boiler which now heats the entire house and the cinema room. The pool itself is housed within a fully glazed box which avoids an overly dominant building from the outside and creates the sensation of swimming in the woods when using the pool.

Coupdeville Architects believe that the design works so well because the pool inside the glass box at ground level gives the feeling of swimming in the forest. The design sits comfortably with the listed building – its main mass is a contemporary take on the oak framed garage it replaces and the pool building disappears by allowing views through to the woods behind. The internal furniture was crafted by local joiner, James Pillier.