In this pool conversion an elliptical plunge pool was constructed within the existing pool. The plunge pool stands proud of the original pool and the remaining pool area is divided into a water garden and a wetland area.
The seat-height, raised plunge pool is clad in horizontal broken slate on the exterior. Inside the plunge pool, which is is about 1.8m deep, is a circular seat.
Water enters the bottom of the plunge pool and wells up inside the pool, like in a natural spring. This water overflows in two waterfalls into the wetland below. One overflow is a broad splash into the main wetland, and the other a small trickle into a dry gravel area planted with Orange River Lilies.
The wetland and water garden, where all the water lilies are, is divided by a line of stepping stones through the wetland.
In winter, when the water is cold an nobody wants to swim, the water in the plunge pool can be lowered to the seating level and the plunge pool transforms into an oval seating area for sitting in the winter sun and reading a good book.
Given the client’s particular interest in food plants, a collection of edible plants was included in the usual collection of indigenous water plants populating this wetlandPOOL.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JANE GRIFFITHS AND KEITH KNOWLTON
We went back 5 years after completion, and here are the later pictures:
