Pool House: building the bridge between old and new
The finished project reads as clean, calm and intentional. Getting there required anything but a simple process.
At the Pool House, designed by MODE4, the goal was not to make the new work look like the existing house. It was to make the old and new belong together.
Square One’s work included the new pool house, pool, courtyard, pergola, hardscape and the actual bridge connecting the new structure back to the existing residence. The project also combined two separate lots into one property.
What looks simple now required a difficult sequence of demolition, shoring, drainage coordination, exact layout and highly controlled detailing long before the finishes came together.
Making one site out of two
The project started by turning two properties into one site.
An existing house on the adjoining lot had to be removed in extremely tight conditions beside the neighboring home. There was little room for conventional demolition, so large portions were taken down carefully by hand.
The ground conditions added another challenge. Substantial shoring was required to stabilize the site and allow the work to proceed safely.
Those early phases are mostly invisible in the finished photographs, but they established everything that followed. Before the architecture could become precise, the site had to become predictable.
Solving the water problem
Water was one of the most difficult parts of the project.
Groundwater was already an issue on the property, and runoff from adjacent land had been directed toward the site. At the same time, the completed project was going to occupy an extremely full infill lot with very little open ground and a tremendous amount of hardscape.
That left very little room for error.
A stormwater planter was incorporated to collect roof water, but its elevations had to work with both the house and the pool. The inlet and outlet conditions had to be established precisely so the system could function while still fitting into the architectural composition.
The house also has no visible gutters.
That required developing a concealed gutter and downspout system that could move water effectively without interrupting the clean roof edges the architecture depended on.
Drainage was not something that could be solved after the building was finished. It had to be designed into the geometry of the project from the beginning.
Connecting old and new
The bridge between the original residence and the new pool house made the relationship between old and new literal.
But the harder part was making the rest of the project feel equally intentional.
The architecture depended on exact alignments across different trades and different phases of construction.
The pool coping is a good example. Its elevation had to meet the door threshold precisely. The coping itself was made from 3-inch-thick ipe, which had to be sourced, detailed and installed with a concealed anchoring system so the finished edge could remain clean.
The brick coursing was equally exacting.
Columns were laid out from window mullions and had to be located before the new pool house was built. Glass was coordinated to precise datums so the finished planes would land where the architecture required them to.
Those decisions could not be left for individual trades to solve independently in the field. The masonry, glass, structure, pool, pergola and hardscape all had to be working from the same geometry.
The more complicated the construction becomes, the calmer the finished project should feel.
Modern work leaves very little room to disguise a miss. Clean planes, restrained materials and precise intersections make small inconsistencies obvious.
That is why a project that looks simple can be exceptionally difficult to build.
The work you do not see
When the project is finished, most of the hardest work should disappear.
You should not notice the hand demolition, the shoring, the groundwater issues, the concealed drainage, the blind gutter system or the hours spent establishing datums before the walls and glass ever arrived.
You should see the architecture.
The Pool House looks simple now.
It took a great deal of coordination to make it feel that way.
Architect: MODE4 Architecture
Builder: Square One Development Group
Photography: Anice Hoachlander
Location: Alexandria, Virginia