December 17, 2012
Building: Casa O
Architect: 01ARQ
Location: Colina, Chile
Why We Liked This:
Another pool house for ya. This one, though, is couched in a valley in the Chilean Andes, with the smooth, finished concrete of the house and the pool’s cerulean sheen playing nicely off the rugged terrain. The house consists of two long volumes: a concrete base, the corner of which is demarcated by pilotis, themselves wrapped in a retractable glazed wall (the architects call it a “pool mirror”); the upper volume, encased in an ajustable wooden screen is positioned a third of the way onto the concrete shell and extends past the line of columns to suggest the drama of a larger cantilever. A central stairwell connects the interiors to a roof terrace that puts you in the middle of the landscape, while funneling out hot air in the summer months. See more of this project in the Architizer database here.
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December 13, 2012
Building: Nest and Cave House
Architect: Idis Turato / Turato Architecture
Location: Opatija, Croatia
Why We Liked This:
Cantilever. Pool. Views. All the right ingredients for a building of the day. The Nest and Cave house in the Opatija Riviera matches the spectacular sea views with striking, if reductive, forms. A 17-meter long structure, cladded in textured concrete, opens onto the shimmering swimming pool and the crest of the sloping hill. A second white volume is anchored overhead and projects far over the lawn, creating a deep shadowed patio space. Here, the architects say, is the “quintessential tension of a Mediterranean house: the battle of the sun and the shadow”. See more of this project in the Architizer database here.
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December 7, 2012
Building: House M Meran
Architect: monovolume architecture + design
Location: Meran, Italy
Why We Liked This:
At first glance, this looks like just another pool house, and to a certain extent, that’s what it is. But the architects went to great lengths to make their design rise above that. The container of the house consists of large glass expanses that frame the hillside all around. Floating opaque floor planes, though quite thick, are gently balanced along the top of the curtain walls, making for slight unease due to the house’s top-heaviness. The reflectivity of the whole plays well off the poolscape, which seems to emerge seamless from the interior of the house. See more of this project in the Architizer database here.
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October 25, 2012
For those of you who haven’t noticed, we at Architizer love Pinterest (oh boy, it’s one addictive site!). We launched our account early this year, and we’ve been pinning our little hearts out ever since. You’ll find a menagerie of boards: green roofs, tree houses, buildings for pets, cantilevers, observation towers, optical illusions, maps & models, extreme architecture, and many more. One of our most popular boards so far: swimming pools. Even with winter approaching here in the U.S., it’s still nice to daydream about refreshing dips in the piscine—particularly if that pool was designed by Zaha Hadid or is perched on a Greek mountaintop overlooking the Aegean Sea. Here, we feature our most-pinned swimming pools in recent months. Be sure to check out the Architizer Pinterest account for more inspiration!
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October 4, 2012
Image by Michael Moran
The Parsons Design Workshop has completed its most recent project, Splash House, a pool house at the Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center in Washington Heights. The outcome of a long collaboration process between Parsons graduate students, city officials, and community residents, the new pool house marks the resurgence of High Bridge and its surrounding park land, leading up to the expected reopening of the bridge in 2014. Continue.
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