Sweeping lines

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One long, gentle curve transforms a linearlap pool into a sensuous haven

The orientation of the pool gives uninterrupted views arecales, cottage, estate, facade, hacienda, home, house, mansion, palm tree, property, real estate, resort, sky, swimming pool, tree, villa, brown — The orientation of the pool gives uninterrupted views of the coastal headland from the patio and far end of the pool.

At 20 metres long this pool is suitable estate, leisure, nature, plant, property, real estate, reflection, sky, swimming pool, tree, water, water resources, teal, brown

The owners of this 1990s home wanted a arecales, estate, hacienda, home, house, leisure, mansion, palm tree, property, real estate, reflection, resort, sky, swimming pool, tree, tropics, vacation, villa, water, blue

The site slopes steeply away from the house, architecture, flora, green, house, leaf, leisure, plant, reflection, swimming pool, tree, vacation, water, brown

The owners of this 1990s home wanted a architecture, area, design, diagram, green, land lot, line, map, neighbourhood, plan, product design, residential area, urban design, water resources, white

If you're looking for a pool that will give you space to work out, but also encourage you to relax and unwind, a standard lap pool may not be the answer.

For the owners of this pool, a decent-sized exercise pool was required, as was a spa and patio area. They also wanted to save the many fine specimen trees in the garden. But the designer, Mike Jack of Natural Habitats, could see a way of adding another dimension.

"From a design point of view, I wanted to stretch the boundaries of a typical lap pool, with its linear shape, so I decided to draw on the architecture of the house," he says. "The walls of the house are straight and linear, although they incorporate some unusual angles, so I drew on the one curve that exists the roof line."

The result is a pool that combines the functionality of a lap pool with the sensuous curves of a tropical plunge pool. The 20m-long pool bows out to 4 metres at its widest point, allowing the owners to relax in the water as well as cover the laps.

Neil Runciman of Frontier Pools, who custom made the pool, says the pool shape is novel, but predicts that he'll work on many more pools like this in the future.

"The long curve, with its shallow gradient down one side of the pool and heavy planting adjacent to it, makes the shape very distinctive," he says.

The curved shape also allowed several large trees to be saved during excavations of the pool, including a 3m-high butea palm and a mature dragon tree.

"The previous owners had planted extensively and there was a lot of mature specimens that we wanted to save," says Jack. "Some of the plants were so unusual that a council botanist was called in to take cuttings and propagate the rarest ones."

The dense planting, including banana palms, dragon trees, hibiscus, queen palms and bungalow palms, ensures that the owners' privacy is maintained.

"With such lush planting, dark blue was a clear choice for the pool and spa tiling," says Runciman. "The contrast creates a tropical feel and the colour helps to accentuate the pool's unusual shape."