Strokes of Genius: 8 Stunning Lap Pools

Perhaps you long for a pool to cool you off during the warm months, but your skinny lawn won’t hold you. Or maybe you’re an all-business kind of swimmer: You want to have in, plow through your workout and dry off without as much as a winding-down soak. Whichever the case, lap pools — long, narrow pools created for rhythmic strokes — are your response. Need inspiration? Check out these eight inventive takes.

House + House Architects

Nevertheless and unbroken, this sliver of a pool feels just like a great sheet of glass.

This is a simply imaginative approach. A glass wall at one end of the house transforms a simple lap pool in a aquarium-style display, set off from the tranquil, wooded setting. It lends the illusion which the water floats in midair.

A modular metal canopy within this pool offers strategic stretches of colour and helps anchor the pool visually to the principal house.

Lewis Aquatech

Lap pools don’t have to be outside. Broad, generous windows provide enough all-natural light the space doesn’t feel oppressive, and using a roof overhead means that you may enjoy a swim in poor weather.

Lang Pools Inc..

1 end of this lap pool is walled off to create a spa. The design provides double the performance without needing a space-swallowing footprint.

Studio William Hefner

Lap pools may double as reflecting pools, and also the one which abuts this villa-style house gives the landscape the atmosphere of a formal estate.

Da Vida Pools, LLC, Andre Del Re & Lisa North, CBP

Raised walls lined in red tile twist this infinity-edge lap pool into an oversized piece of sculpture. A terrace juts over it so that swimmers don’t have to hike their legs over the sides to go into.

www.KarlGercens.com

Here’s another, entirely different approach to the raised look. Weathered, coved borders produce a stately, storied feel that falls in step with the lush gardens and grass-pocked brick walkway.

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