Eight houses that integrate swimming pools into their architecture
From a cantilevered rooftop pool in Marbella to a brutalist home with a swim-up lagoon, here are eight houses that don't relegate swimming pools to the garden.
Most of these residences are located in balmy climates such as Mexico or Singapore that allow living spaces to be opened up to the elements – and with that to direct pool access.
But we've also included a house in rainy Seattle that belongs to an avid swimmer and has three different water features.
Read on for our roundup of homes that integrate swimming pools into their architecture:
Tall, pivoting glass doors enable the double-height living room of this villa on the Yucatán coast to be opened up onto a crystalline swimming pool, with a small flight of stairs allowing swimmers to step straight into the water.
The neighbouring primary bedroom overlooks the pool via a protruding window and also has direct access via a small private patio.
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Casa B, Malta, by Architrend Architecture
Rather than being hidden away, the glass-walled rooftop pool of this Maltese home is visible from the living spaces below as well as from the street, thanks to strategic cut-outs in the building's concrete frame.
The pool is connected to a small deck on the fourth floor of the residence, with views towards the coast and the capital Valletta.
Casa Xólotl, Mexico, by Punto Arquitectónico
When Punto Arquitectónico renovated this single-storey home in Mérida, the Mexican studio decided to split the building into two separate volumes divided by a walled-in courtyard.
Here, a shallow pool now flows around the building's original stone walls and its refurbished cistern, allowing inhabitants to swim right up to an outdoor lounge.
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Lake Washington Shores Residence, USA, by Garret Cord Werner
Set on an island in the middle of Lake Washington, this home belongs to an avid swimmer who wanted to live close to the water.
With this aim, local studio Garret Cord Werner added a reflective pond, a lap pool and a jacuzzi across two different levels, creating a "spine" of water that divides the public and private spaces of the home and can be traversed via small bridges.
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Villa Cava, Mexico, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura
This brutalist holiday home in Tulum was designed to pay homage to cenotes – Mexico's ancient freshwater sinkholes – by integrating not just one but two different pools into its concrete structure.
One is a swim-up pool that leads directly onto the ground-floor living room and the other is perched on the roof but visible from below via a striking circular skylight, creating the impression of looking up at a cenote's cavernous opening.
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Jellyfish House, Spain, by Wiel Arets Architects
A glass-bottomed pool cantilevers out from the roof of this house by Dutch office Wiel Arets Architects, covering a semi-enclosed terrace beside the main entrance on the ground floor.
"The searing Spanish sun constantly filters through the pool's glass wall and floor, creating ripples of iridescent turquoise reflections throughout the entire house," the design team explained.
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Cornwall Gardens, Singapore, by Chang Architects
This multi-generational family home in Singapore is arranged around a central courtyard with a swimming pool as well as a waterfall and Koi carp pond separated from each other by a small bridge.
From the ground-floor dining room, inhabitants have to cross a small bridge to reach the living room. Alternatively, they can descend a few steps into the dry, sunken seating area that is built into the pool.
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Panorama House, Brazil, by Fernanda Marques
Swimmers in the pool of this two-storey apartment in São Paulo can be watched from the home's double-height living room like fish in an aquarium tank.
Designed for a couple, the 10-metre-long pool is visible through extra thick glass windows that had to be imported from abroad.
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