Project Name: The Pool House

Location: West Yorkshire, UK

Date Completed: January 2020

Architect: Design Emporium Ltd – John Forster

Interior Design: Design Emporium Ltd – Rik Smith

Design Emporium Ltd were required to create a unique pool house, complete with gym, sauna / steam room, changing room, home office and external covered sunken hot tub. The work involved the external refurbishment of the barn including the surrounding landscaping also.

The building is located within an eight-acre estate set within the Yorkshire Dales. The careful design of the building both externally and internally help connect the space to the more formal courtyard to the front and then into the lake/meadow to the rear. The original use of the building as an agricultural barn influenced the scheme and design, and material palette therefore feels in context with the original use.

The scheme brought together high-quality materials, such as bronze windows, roughcast micro cement and large format tiles to create a sympathetic scheme that complemented the status of the building. The ceiling was completed in reclaimed timber from French barns, and this was reflected in the pool base with a wood effect porcelain. Some walls were completed in a roughcast micro cement which was a nod to the original lime render that would have been appropriate in the original building.

The large space and openness of the pool hall creates a vast cavern that can feel hollow. The design has carefully created intimacy and interest. Large walls can often feel bland, but the use of multiple materials, and introduction of texture has ensured the space is well balanced. Many residential pool houses follow a formulaic approach, using standard finishes (blue mosaics in the pool tank) and have little interest. This pool not only considers the buildings original use, but also how it interacts with its surroundings.