Residential swimming pools are nothing new, but they have become an unique component of modern living. Increasingly popularized, pools became a status symbol and a residential recreation element. Today, private swimming pools can be found across the world, and in many different climates. As more pools were built, so too were structures that could house equipment and pool amenities, as well as guest rooms or living quarters. These “poolhouses” were designed as spaces for accommodation, storage, and maintenance.
Drawing together poolhouses, the following projects examine these structures and their distinct relationships to pools, residences, and their surrounding contexts. While private and simple in nature, each poolhouse explores formal and spatial relationships that are specific to their individual sites and client briefs. They show how private poolhouses are designed as exclusive additions to contemporary life.
Pool House / Robert Young Architects
Building codes in the Hamptons specify that a pool house can only contain 200 square feet of interior space. Here, the interior section — maxing out at exactly 200 square feet, and enclosable by folding doors — was carefully crafted to maximize the space: it contains a kitchenette, bathroom, day bed and chair.
Pool House / 42mm Architecture
The design team creating this building like an object or sculpture that's not bound by any classical archetypal or conventional construction system. The form is like a natural unveiling from the landscape, as the pool house is overlooking the green, it emerges from it and is perched above. The construction system is shell-based, so cantilevering the block was not a challenge.
Dry Creek Poolhouse / Ro I Rockett Design
Anchored by an inventive reuse of local materials on a constrained lot in a beautiful Sonoma County landscape, this project started as a country retreat and evolved into a full-time residence. The desired program added a pool, poolhouse, outdoor living area, gardens, bocce court and guest arrival with overflow parking.
Woodstock Poolhouse / North River Architecture & Planning
The Catskill forest comes right up to the doors of this pool house located in the hills outside of Woodstock, NY. At 2,000 square feet and only 18 feet wide, this slim building fits between the towering trees and contains a 60 foot indoor lap pool, spa bathroom, exercise room, and a covered deck that steps down to the forest floor.
Quebec Pool House / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
This pool house and spa is constructed into the side of a mountain at the point where it meets the St. Lawrence River valley floor. Built for a discerning client on his rural property west of Montreal, this seemingly simple structure is intricately crafted. A glass box containing a gym, lounge and service areas is embraced by elongated board-formed concrete walls that reach out into the landscape.
Los Altos Poolhouse / Framestudio
Originally built in 1966, this Los Altos home is a single-level ranch style structure, ubiquitous in suburban neighborhoods throughout the United States. Inspired by hotel spas frequented while working overseas, the client tasked Framestudio to design an extension to the house that would accommodate a swim spa and home gym.
Poolhouse O / Steven Vandenborre
The project brings together a walled courtyard and a swimming pool. The living area is a glass box contained within a concrete garden pavilion. By making the poolhouse entirely out of glass, with minimal framed windows, both inside and outside seems to disappear.
PoolHouse / +tongtong
Multidisciplinary studio +tongtong recently completed a bold, minimalist renovation of a pool house in Toronto. Designed to be multifunctional, the open-space interiors can easily transform from pool house to guesthouse to entertainment space to work studio to event space.
Mague House / Mauricio Ceballos X Architects
Located in an ancestral place at Malinalco, México; surrounded by abundant vegetation, on the slope of a hill next to one of the three monolithic pyramids of the world, an Aztec ceremonial center, the site was carefully chosen by the clients due to its unique micro-climate and large trees.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on February 18, 2021.
