Type
New Build, 2 Wetlands and a pond

Size
80,000 litre 13 m lap swimming pool

Note
Grotto is the largest pool in this collection and the one built around a daily habit. Sasha wanted to swim properly, not paddle, so the pool was set out as a long lap swim of roughly thirteen metres. Every morning starts with lengths in living water, and finishes in the sauna.

Volume as an advantage

A hundred thousand litres is a serious body of water. That scale brings its own challenges, but it also brings stability. Large volumes are slower to swing. Temperature moves gently, nutrient loads dilute, and a single hot week or a heavy swim day does not knock the system sideways the way it can in a small pool. Water like this is easier to keep well, provided the treatment is sized to match it.

Two wetlands, two jobs

Rather than one large treatment zone, Grotto runs through two. A small wetland sits directly alongside the pool, working continuously and close to the source. A second, much larger wetland and pond sits slightly removed from the swimming area, taking the heavier load.

Splitting the system this way does something a single wetland cannot. The adjacent bed keeps the water at the pool moving and treated, while the larger body further out has the room to do slow, thorough biological work, and to be a genuine landscape feature in its own right rather than a piece of equipment parked next to a pool. The pond holds water, plants and life at a scale that changes the character of the whole garden. Water passes through both before returning to the swim zone.

A pool that gets used

The measure of a pool like this is not how it photographs on the day of handover. It is whether the owner is in it at six in the morning in autumn. Grotto is that pool. Thirteen metres of clear, plant filtered water, swum through daily, then the sauna.

Established