Lantana Pool House

A pool house is usually the last thing built and the first thing value-managed. This one was treated as the primary structure from the outset, because it is where the family actually spends a Brisbane summer.

It sits at the low end of a north-sloping block, far enough from the main house that the two read as separate buildings sharing a garden. A single pitched roof covers the change room, an outdoor kitchen and a covered terrace, and the gap between them is the circulation.

The roof plane extends two and a half metres past the terrace edge. That overhang, not the fans, is why the space is usable at two in the afternoon in January.

Blockwork holds the western end against the neighbour and carries the barbecue and the storage. Everything else is timber and insect screen, so on a still evening the building effectively disappears and the pool becomes the room.