We were very fortunate to have designed quite a number of wonderful projects in the past for the owners of this steep property on Sydney’s northern beaches, so when we were contacted again about another new project we knew that this next project would also undoubtedly be very exciting – plus we’d also have the pleasure of again being able to look after these lovely people.
Our Clients’ brief was for us to design a Pool that would be the maximum length achievable, to allow them to use the Pool for true exercise as well as for general fun and recreation purposes, and to design a Pool that would fully complement the northerly coastal aspect and the expansive views from the Pool area out over the ocean and adjacent beaches. In addition, our Clients were after a dramatic and innovative design solution for their special site.
Our aim was to design a Pool that was clean-lined and relatively minimalist in style. The pool is 16.67m in length, making it just over one-third Olympic size, and 2.7m - 4m wide. We wanted to design a Pool that would complement and not compete with this magnificent view – a Pool that was sensitive to the beauty and character of the surrounding natural and built environments, yet still satisfied our Clients’ functional and aesthetic requirements.
This Pool sits largely out of ground due to its hillside location and features an extended glass edge that wraps around three sides of the Pool and which, when viewed from inside the residence, creates the illusion of a floating pool merging into the ocean beyond. The water in the Pool gently spills over the glass edges on all three of the glass-edged sides and is collected in the lower level balance tank, before being filtered, sanitised, solar-heated and returned back into the Pool. The Pool structure itself is sensitively integrated into the surrounding garden areas, which are themselves neatly terraced and planted out with native plants including Banksias, Baueras, Bottlebrush and Kangaroo Paw.
The interior of the Pool is tiled with a special blend of Italian glass mosaic tiles, specially selected to replicate the look of the ocean on a sunny day. The pool concourse and steps are paved with a dense Himalayan sandstone, with the top surface sandblasted to provide a more uniform and slip-resistant finish. Utilising the natural changes in level, all of the Pool filtration, sanitation (etc.) equipment was able to be incorporated into purpose-built, acoustically-controlled rooms located beneath the Pool structure itself.
Peter Glass and Associates are committed to environmentally sustainable design. This is reflected in the many passive as well as active elements incorporated into the design of this and other projects. This includes such things as the 30,000 litres of rainwater storage, held in a combination of above ground and below ground rainwater tanks, which enables the rainwater harvested from the rooftop and paved areas to be utilised for irrigation and pool top-up purposes. The low energy fibre optic pool lighting is another means of reducing usage of natural resources.
The landscape design incorporates many attractive visual features, including stepping stone access through pebble mulch within a native garden setting, plus a private outdoor shower nestled into a sandstone niche. In addition, the many hardy species of native plants incorporated into the design of this project were selected on the basis of their attractive appearance, their attractiveness to native birds and insects, and their ability to thrive in the existing sandy soil without the need for extensive watering or fertilizing.
Our Clients are so happy with how their new home, pool and landscaping have turned out that we are not expecting to hear from them about a new project for quite a long time …. but then, who knows?