During the renovation of a 17th century gentleman’s house in the flemish region of Belgium, the adjoining property, then an abandoned school, went up for sale and was promptly purchased. since the building bordered the client’s garden, the idea of a panoramic swimming pool became the optimal program for the schoolhouse roof.
The dmvA design required a system of columns and beams created the skeleton inserted into the brick structure to support the pristine white-walled basin. The pool’s building systems also opened the remaining space of the building to become a livable relaxation space with a ground floor open kitchen and a mixed use first level. The immaculate planes white-out the rustic brick of the surrounding structures, save for the warm hues of the roof.
The rooftop pool and patio are supported by a new reinforced concrete structure integrated within the shell of an abandoned school building. The structure was renovated and its interior reprogrammed with thoughtful new spaces, including a ground floor “outdoor kitchen” and a multifunctional first floor studio. Still, the rooftop was granted priority of design, with great care and consideration given over to the materials and forms that characterize the zen-like room. A polyurethane coating was applied to all of the deck surfaces to ensure its clean, even antiseptic appearance. Any joints and would-be connections are dissolved into a tectonic seamlessness, with only the pool ladder and a narrow band of rocks along the deck’s perimeter to detract from the otherwise featureless space.
