Approached from the main house along a tree-lined path, the large lattice window, a supersized version of the leaded lights in the 17thcentury house draws you down a few steps to the new swimming pool building.  The new pool barn was part of a wider scheme of re-ordering and enhancement across the listed property.

Set at a lower level to the main house within terraces of soft landscaping, the building was conceived as a contemporary response to the listed threshing barn it sits perpendicular to and nestles quietly into the corner of what was previously an under-used part of the property.

Offset from the historic listed barn the pool building is connected by a single storey linking structure which houses the plant and changing facilities.  The offset creating an intimate courtyard space between itself and the historic barn.

The traditional linear gabled form is clad with hundreds of larch battens that create an open rainscreen to the walls and roof with the oversailing eaves and verges casting playful shadows around its fringes.  Left untreated to silver naturally, the narrow-faced, chunky battens, spaced between deep shadows create a soft, constantly changing, mottled appearance.

Maintaining the visual connection between the listed barn and the gardens to the south was important to the scheme.  A large glazed opening in the north elevation that echoes the traditional midstreys of local threshing barns affords attractive views straight through the barn across the small courtyard to the gable end of the historic barn beyond.  This transparency through the building and the oversailing battens lend the building a lightweight character that respects its historic setting.

The fully glazed, south elevation, is defined by the oak and steel flitch posts that lightly meet the ground at the threshold to the pool.  Inside, the eight scissor trusses have been skillfully engineered in timber and steel to form a lofty, timber-lined roof.  The boarding of the vaulted ceiling adds a warm backdrop to the engineered structure, resonating with the Cotswold stone.  As well as using sustainable timber in its construction, both the swimming pool and the building itself are heated by a natural pond, using a water source heat pump.

The wider gardens and terraces are defined by large native trees and as the building matures and the timber silvers it will continue to grow into its landscape setting.  The use of timber to line the inside and outside of the traditional form, together with the combination of timber and steel in the expressed structure, has created an attractive lightweight addition to the listed property.