Project: Sussex Pool House
Architecture: The Vawdrey House Ltd
Location: Ardingly, Sussex, United Kingdom
Area: 110 m2
Photo Credits: Siobhan Doran Photography
Text by The Vawdrey House
The development of a natural mineral water swimming pool complex including a bio diverse pool house with sauna and changing facilities, laundry, indoor games room and kitchen and bar. Landscaped gardens with outdoor kitchen and pergola.
Having enjoyed successful careers linked to property, and wise to the importance of building in an environmentally responsible way, our clients came to us to build a pool complex that would entice their three grown up children and their friends home to visit regularly.
The existing house – a converted barn – started its life as a humble farm building linked to the grand manor house at the top of the lane. However, a century later this outbuilding has been re-developed into a covetable family home.
The clients had their hearts set on a natural mineral water swimming pool. A sustainable style of swimming pool that uses natural mineral filters rather than chlorine to produce spring quality water that is both kinder to the environment and the body. The result is that both plants and humans could drink the water directly from the pool.
The brief incorporated a pool house with indoor sauna and changing rooms, and a large open plan games room, with a TV chill out zone and a bar that doubles up as a kitchen to service the outdoor cooking area.
Situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we wanted the new pool house structure to be subtle and to sit harmoniously in its surroundings. For that to be the case, a flat green roof structure with large glazing was key. It was fitting how organically the design of the building flowed from this gentle and environmentally respectful ethos.
Keen not to ape the original barn, we settled upon a rectilinear structure with a wildflower meadow roof. Excellent for thermal insulation, wildlife and a natural camouflage, Mid Sussex Council was won on the grounds of how stealthy this large structure would be.
Photovoltaic panels, a ground source heat pump and a Tesla Power Wall means that together the barn, pool and pool house generate almost all the energy they require for an environmentally sound, off-grid living experience.
A clever design feature that had enormous benefits to the project was the larch timber cladding and overhang that keeps direct sunlight off the glazed doors. Detailed 3D models and sun paths were created to ensure that the orientation of the building and the overhang would be at the perfect angles to ensure the pool house would not overheat.
Landscaping was designed to bridge the divide between the traditional barn and the contemporary pool house. An industrial Corten steel wall provides a point of interest in the new space as well as offering privacy for swimmers, while the stone walls surrounding the bar and outdoor kitchen are made from the same stone as that used in the barn all of which originates from a local quarry.
