Glass House Features Dream Lap Pool

At first sight, this huge steel framing structure capturing the sky appears to be an open pavilion.

In fact it is entirely glassed in, to house what must be the most glamourous lap pool ever, in a double height glass pavilion.

It is one of several sweet surprises in this unusual renovation.

It is entered through the small original cottage on the site – on the third floor – shown at the back here.

On entering, the first interior sight is this stunning view that captures a huge sky and overlooks the city lights in the harbour through the second floor double-height lap pool atrium.

Next to the glass atrium of the pool, the living room occupies a cosy space to the back of the house.

The kitchen/dining is placed in the front, suspended right within the harbour view, creating a blissfully happy place for making food and enjoying it.

While the living room is destined for a more intimate focus, of cosy nights talking and reading around a fire.

Two childrens’ bedrooms are on this offset top floor (LEVEL I), the original cottage, a separate smaller building at the top of the hill.

The stairs that connect this entry floor to the rest of the house which is entered beside the pool, are at the front “on the outside” of this entry floor.

Under the living room, the simple and unassuming master bedroom is placed on the ground floor.

With tufts of grasses waving across a short lawn, this would seem very natural and earthy, like sleeping in a field.

Sited on the banks of Hobart’s Derwent River in Tasmania, the house is a huge extension of and remodel of an existing small cottage which is now just one of the three floors making up the new house: just the small and unassuming entry level.

The remodel really flouts conventions:

1. By putting childrens’ bedrooms on the entry level/parents’ two floors down on the ground,

2. Putting the kitchen in the view/living room facing the other way,

3. By entering the house into a pool atrium/centering the house around the lap pool,

4. By reusing the old cottage as an entry floor,

this house offers many charming surprises.