PRIVATE INDOOR POOL ADDITION
Located on a prominent hilltop site just north of Thornbury, this sloping property has panoramic views of the Niagara Escarpment, Georgian Bay and Beaver Valley. The existing residence is built along the fall line of the slope maximizing views and allowing for a basement walkout. The owner wished to replace the existing outdoor pool and add a new indoor pool that would be unobtrusive to the existing house and its views.
The solution is a pool enclosure buried into the hillside, with basement access and flat green roof at ground floor level allowing the addition to disappear into the landsacpe thereby maintaining all of the original views. The building is extremely energy efficient with two underground thermal mass walls and utilizing high insulation values, radiant floor heating and Dry-O-Tron systems for heating and humidity control.
The addition features change rooms, a washroom and a laundry area accessible to both indoor and outdoor pools. Multiple seating areas indoors and outdoors link the two pools on a carefully composed axis.
The 25’x50’ zero edge indoor pool is built into the corner of the clear span 36’x68’ room allowing for in-pool bench seating between stone piers. The end of the pool has a granite feature wall with cascading waterfalls on its face and extending from the bottom of the pool up through a rooftop skylight. Within the 12’ clear ceilings are a series of skylights providing natural light throughout the interior.
Opposite the pool, the exterior walls are composed of large expanses of floor to ceiling retractable glazing that disappear into concealed pockets in the structural stone piers allowing uninterrupted passage from interior to exterior in the summer. These glazed openings are oriented to take advantage of the same stunning views for this spectacular year around retreat.