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Modern building often sees clients wooed by mass and
weight, whereas you pare it right back to the essentials as
expressed and exposed performance.
MH Part of the brief was to respect the existing building
and we wanted to complement, rather than mimic or take
inspiration from it. We responded to its considerable mass
and large, boxy forms because it didn’t need a repetition
of that in the garden.
Why not just rely on solar heating?
MH This isn’t saying: “Let it just sit there and pump solar
heated water all day long.” Having that enclosure allows us
to manage that. That seems to me to be a pretty smart idea,
that it doesn’t have to be inside or outside. In fact, you’ve
got the best of both worlds. That’s essentially the spirit
of this as well.
CB There was an existing pool we had to protect. Our
clients were sitting here in the middle of winter and the
pool is virtually shut down. There was frustration on their
part being restricted to so few months of the year.
You use an integrated temperature management
system in addition to the sliding walls as doors.
CB Yes, it’s known as a Bauer system from
Germany and very, very gently introduces air at
two atmospheric pressures without gusting like
conventional air-conditioning. Those two atmospheric
pressures create a blanket over the water to keep any
moisture or condensation from rising, so it’s a different
concept to most other pools that you see in Melbourne.