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All Photos/Editor’s Picks/outdoor/pools, tubs, showers : swimming

Outdoor Swimming Pools, Tubs, Showers Design Photos and Ideas

The retouched meadow between the house and its detached garage/guest room was given a stone walking path.
Another move that reduces the house's environmental impact is the inclusion of photovoltaic panels on the roof. The panels generate enough energy to offset 95% of the house’s consumption.
Danny envisioned the space between the ADU and the house as an informal place to gather. "It creates a sort of courtyard sensibility, which works for our intergenerational family dynamics."
The courtyard brings natural light into the lower level of the home, which has a den/media room, guest suite/workout area, and storage and mechanical.
“Typically people don't have pools on a small city lot like this, so we really had to work with what we had,” says Monika. The couple’s child, Sullivan, peaks through the pool’s window.
The home's windows are from Fleetwood Windows & Doors, while the sofa is from Teak Warehouse.
Twenty-foot-wide doors from Solar Innovations offer easy access to the deck. “Solar Innovations was the only manufacturer at that time that had a pocket multi-slider with a good ADA threshold,” says architect Erick Mikiten. “They almost look like steel, but are thermally broken aluminum.”
“The pool house was something I always wanted to build,” Robert says. The bar is the main attraction. And next to it, a lime tree is within reach to make fresh gin and tonics.
Guy (holding Pickles the cat) and Mark transformed the backyard, adding a pool and planting sycamore trees and native grasses. A custom dining table by Angel City Lumber is paired with vintage chairs from Amsterdam Modern.
Just inside the living room’s sliding glass door is a Parentesi lamp by Achille Castiglioni, an object Marc has admired since childhood. Below, the pool deck displays a pair of Eos side chairs, lounge chairs, and a square dining table by Matthew Hilton.
Designed by José Guedes Cruz, César Marques, and Marco Marinho of the Portugal-based firm Guedes Cruz Architects, The Wall House is laid out in an open-box plan, and is fitted with plenty of glass windows to enhance the synergy between its interior and exterior spaces.
Architecture and interior photographer Marc Gerritsen went back to basics when he designed this minimalist concrete house that you can rent through Airbnb.
“It’s so nice back here in the summer in the shade,” says Sherry. “We don’t even have to put sunscreen on the kids. It’s a true little oasis.”
“The intention of the landscape design was to create a tranquil refuge in a vibrant neighborhood for the family to entertain, play, and spend quality time together outdoors,” says the team at The Green Room Landscape Architecture. “The architecture produced multiple lines of sight that penetrate through the home, connecting the front and back yards with similar plant materials, creating a feeling that the house was planted in a scenic Sonoran meadow.”
Day takes a swim in a new lap pool framed by a lush Southern California garden. The lower wall next to the pool is made from stacked Pennsylvania bluestone, which was used for all exterior stone as well.
The pool was purposefully constructed close to the indoor living spaces in order to contribute to the interior ambiance. The material palette was informed by the color of the surrounding trees—clay brick for the walls, wood for the soffits, and stone for the flooring.
Floor-to-ceiling windows from Ram usher in light during the day and emit a welcoming glow at night.
Creede Fitch and his wife look out on the courtyard of their Austin home, where a heritage pecan tree has pride of place.
“The pitched ceilings and ribbon of clerestory windows make the interior feel more spacious than it is,” notes Gooden.
The pool and covered patio sit on the corner opposite of the entrance courtyard. The patio can be accessed through sliding glass doors from both the dining room and kitchen, and the master bedroom. Having lived on the site for so long, designer Jamie Chioco was able to quickly make informed decisions about the design—for example, one of the neighbors uses his backyard for large family gatherings and barbecues, and so it was decided early on to not to have many openings on that facade in order to give both homes privacy.
To ensure continuity, the middle portion of the terrace—including integrated heaters, a ceiling fan, and a fire pit—is covered with a minimal slope roof that Wade Design Architects cleverly hid above a continuous line of structural beams.
An outdoor patio area sits under a covered area looking out onto the private courtyard.
The VDL Pavilion is open to nature, with no glass walls. Vertical fins provide shading along one wall.
A 26-foot-wide, 3-ton airport glass hangar door opens the living room to the Atlantic Ocean. The enormous structure was custom-made for the home, designed to raise at the touch of a button to let the ocean breeze permeate every corner of the home.
Throughout the day, light animates the limestone walls to various effects. “As the sun rotates around and is more oblique to the texture of the stone, it casts these wonderful shadows on it,” says Raike. “And you just get a real appreciation for the texture of the stone and the richness of the colors in it.”
The rear of the house continues the same mix of materials as the front facade and includes a long, narrow pool.
The pool house patio, featuring Harbour Outdoor sun loungers.
Back into the forest, the Pool House is oriented for panoramic views of the valley floor.
The Pool House seen at night.
Tall indigenous wetland grasses grow fecund, right up to the border of the saltwater swimming pool.
Architecture firm Bromley Caldari transformed a cramped beach house into a spacious vacation getaway filled with natural light and views.
This 3,200-square-foot structure was assembled with a prefabricated foundation, concrete panel siding, and efficient built-ins, minimizing construction debris and toxins—such as concrete foundation tar—on the site.
Melanie Maher sunbathes beneath the lattice of a pool house, which is clad in Cor-Ten steel.
The linear swimming pool hovers above the hillside, disappearing into the tropical foliage.
At Cuadra San Cristóbal, the water feature serves three purposes: as a drinking fountain for horses, as a reflection pond, and as a swimming pool for horses.
Much of the new building and interiors was constructed using natural material: cedar walls and ceiling linings, solid American oak joinery and floorboards, off-form concrete countertops and backsplashes, limestone and bluestone paving, and charred (Yakigugi) silvertop ash cladding.
In back, the swimming pool abuts a steep drop-off.
The villas provide an intimate setting for guests to unwind in the privacy of their own home away from home.
Murren chose maintenance-free materials, such as Stepstone precast concrete pavers for exterior decks and river-rock-covered flat roofs. He recalls his neighbors’ astonishment and delight when “we went from a giant hole in the ground to a two-story house in just four days.”
The stunning retreat is centered around a serene swimming pool with natural stone touches.
Dunlop demonstrates the deck’s secondary use: as a launching pad into the concrete plunge pool on the first floor.
Sliding walls of glass by Arcadia are situated throughout.
The 82-foot-long pool gets quite a lot of use by Jeff and Millie, and especially by the kids, who are both on the local swim team.
Gregory and Caryn Katz are dwarfed beneath the cantilevered concrete overhang, which houses the bedroom on the upper level. The stackable glass doors that run beneath allow the house to open completely to the yard and swimming pool, soften the severity of the concrete, and blur the boundary between indoors and out.
Dining with a Scandinavian touch: Archi dining chair combined with Carver table.
The pool feels as laterally finite as the house feels spacious—but the view goes up forever.
The carport screen is dotted with different-size openings, some louvered.
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Austin, Texas
Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017
Abernathy House
Frank Sinatra’s “Twin Palms” Estate
A second aperture in the roof is located over the shallow end of the pool. An alfresco dining area, with seating by Kettal, is perched a few steps below.

The Dwell House Is a Modern Prefab ADU Delivered to Your Backyard

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