A low brick built utilitarian space that blends with the surrounding landscape and retains the bank behind
London-based Knox Bhavan has completed a brick built pool house for the owners of a Georgian property in Pembury near Tunbridge Wells, UK.
Nestled into a slope in the garden, the structure was built on top of the existing retaining wall and features as part of a wider garden scheme, re-landscaped for the new home owners by Lloyd Brunt.
Knox Bhavan’s open brief was to build an unobtrusive pool house, giving the practice creative freedom with materials and form.
Their answer was a hardwearing brick structure which blends into the landscape and actively holds up the earth behind it.
A 400mm thick green roof forms a biodiverse mound which provides protection and thermal mass.
The structure was built on top of the existing retaining wall and features as part of a wider garden scheme
Perpendicular to the house, when viewed from its windows, the pool building is almost unnoticeable, read only by its longitudinal brick spine. Viewed from above, it is subsumed into the landscape and virtually invisible.
Beginning in a sweeping helix-like curve alongside the York stone path, the brick spine then ‘unzips’ with one side climbing to hold back the earth and the other responding to the swimming pool and forming its low frontage.
The entire structure underneath the earth takes the form of an arrow head, its narrowest point towards the house.
The walls later re-join towards the rear end of the building. The ribbon of brick becomes a trailing edge which runs into the lawn.
The retaining wall itself is built in a blockwork system whilst the roof is timber, above which a drainage mat funnels water into gullies on the perimeter of the roof. This harvested rainwater irrigates the land in front of the pool.
The entire structure underneath the earth takes the form of an arrow head, its narrowest point towards the house
The new structure is 50% smaller than its predecessor, and with a walk-on roof pushed into the hill, it takes nothing from the landscape and helps open up views from the house.
Behind the larch shuttered doors is a space for storing sun loungers and hanging towels. There is also a sink and a fridge.
To the right, behind a solid larch door, is a shower room, changing room and toilet.
The brick continues within to become the interior floor finish while the shower enclosure takes on a tube-like form, its walls clad in white tiles with natural daylight coming from a glazed circular opening above.
For the storage area, the finish is a screed floor and utilitarian plywood finish.
Project details
Architect Knox Bhavan
Structural engineer Cooper Associates
Landscape designer Lloyd Brunt
Contractor Gardenlink, Andrew Penny Construction
Joinery Andrew Penny Construction
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