Cool pool

Lighting Design International integrated lighting into the architecture to complement the minimalist design of this dramatic swimming pool and spa at a home in Ireland

This private spa, in the basement of a nineteenth century family house, was added as part of an ambitious extension and renovation project.

It has a distinctly different character from the country house above, and includes a 17.5-metre swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and gymnasium.

The brief to Lighting Design International was to create a series of calming, coherent and relaxing spaces in a newly carved-out basement. The challenge was to create a versatile yet discreet scheme that would enhance and complement the forms while creating a suitable ambience for the tranquil subterranean retreat.

Light and space
Lighting was vital to establish the form of the space, and great efforts were made to hide all visible technology with clever co-ordination and custom detailing. “We wanted the visitor to see the effect of light and not the source wherever possible,” says Graham Rollins of LDI.

Access to the spa is through a black fumed-oak stairwell with low moody lighting from incandescent pendants and concealed linear stringer lighting. Visitors then enter the brighter chalky-white limestone basement lit by a complementary blend of natural and artificial light.

Beyond the sauna, the pool is visible for the first time; internally clad with Black Sicilian Basaltina, and mirroring the play of light cast across the undulating GRG ceiling. A hidden skylight illuminates the end wall naturally during the day (balanced by artificial light at night) to reflect light across the space, modelling and accentuating the ceiling’s form.

Indirect light sources
The pool’s ceiling is halo-lit from its angular perimeter by two concealed indirect light sources that bounce light down the walls and define the peaks and troughs of the structure with a distinct line of light. Cold cathode sources from ACDC light the space by day in a crisp mid-white of 3500K, with colour-changing LEDs from Philips Color Kinetics creating warm white glows or selected dramatic colours in the evening. The perimeter trough provides almost all the high level lighting, and no fittings have been allowed to penetrate the ceiling.

"We wanted the visitor to see the effect of light and not the sourcewherever possible"

The pool is lit from two sides by banks of narrow beam cool white LEDs from Philips, enhancing the tinted water’s blue hue. This idea was implemented after a raise-and-lower pool floor was added, which would have covered the existing pool floodlights. The pool was already cast before LDI became involved in the project, so the fittings were installed 200mm below the surface so cabling and maintenance can be carried out through the pool’s overflow channel.

Step lights
The deep Jacuzzi is lit by narrow beam step lights from Universal Fibre Optics that dramatically skim light across the dark stone, creating impact, defining form, and ensuring visitors keep their footing.

The sauna and steam room are clad in dark finishes, and moody lighting contrasts with the lighter pool areas. Lighting is provided by recessed vertical slots in the corners, partially concealing RAL-finished louvered downlighters, which model the spaces by emphasising their extents.

Cold cathode
The gym is illuminated by cold cathode coffer lighting and low level Kreon halogen floor washers, creating bright indirect light for high energy workouts or low level lighting for yoga. The monolithic limestone volumes that house the sauna, steam room and showers are also used to uplight the ceilings both in the gym, and in the changing area.

The entire lighting scheme explores the simple relationships between stone, water and light.

Project details

Lighting Design: Lighting Design International
Architect: Carmody Groarke
Main contractor: Tom Hayes
M&E engineering: Environmental Engineering Partnership
Electrical contractor: Martin O'Tool Electrical [CHECK THIS]
GRG ceiling: Clark & Fenn Skanska
Stone: Limestone Gallery
Principal suppliers: ACDC, Philips Color Kinetics, Philips, LightGraphix, Lucent Lighting, Cube Lighting, John Cullen Lighting, Universal Fibre Optics, Kreon, Mike Stoane Lighting