In a recent discussion with San Francisco-based landscape architect Scott Lewis, he told us that the biggest shift in pool design, as he has seen it, is tinting plaster to a darker shade of a blue (rather than the blinding turquoise of midcentury pools). The effect, Lewis says, is a more natural palette—more restful—and creates a reflective surface for the sky.
As it turns out, architects from Alvar Aalto to Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Vincent van Duysen also have their own take on the backyard pool. Here are our 20 favorite modernist pool designs, just in time for the 90-degree days of summer.
Above: A prototype for minimalist pools is seen in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion, a house built in 1929 that stood for only a year. Photograph via Mies van der Rohe Society.
Above: A Victorian house in Kensington, London renovated with an indoor pool by David Chipperfield Architects.
Above: On a Greek island on the northern side of the Cyclades, a single-level house is an ongoing build project by Kois Associated Architects. The expanse of the rooftop is a dark blue infinity pool that merges visually with the landscape and pushes the home beneath it into the hillside. Photograph via Dezeen.
Above: A minimalist lap pool at the PI Residence in Kortrijk, Belgium designed by Vincent van Duysen.
Above: A serene infinity pool at the edge a house at Jardin del Sol on the Canary Islands in Spain, built by Corona y P. Amaral Arquitectos. Photograph via Arch Daily.
Above: An indoor-outdoor lap pool in a renovated 1920s villa in Antwerp, Belgium by architect Vincent van Duysen.
Above: An illuminated pool in the shadow of the Graubünden, Switzerland mountains at Vals Thermal Spa designed by architect Peter Zumpthor.
Above: At Villa Mairea, a house in Noormarkku, Finland designed by Alvar Aalto in 1940 includes a simple pool in the iconic Aalto shape. Photograph via Alvar Aalto Museo.
Above: A chlorine-free, bio-filtered pool in Riehen, Switzerland by architects Herzog & de Meuron is modeled after a natural bathing lake.
Above: A circular swimming pool built from a former livestock watering tank at architect Olle Lundberg's redwood cabin in Cazadero, California.
Above: An elevated concrete pathway leads to a bright, circular pool at Philip Johnson's Glass House on 49 acres in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Above: An indoor pool in the 741-foot-tall Melbourne Tower by Elenberg Fraser.
Above: A penthouse in Antwerp, Belgium designed by Hans Verstuyft Architecten.
Above: A pool at the Alfriston School in Buckinghamshire, England was designed by Duggan Morris Architects to reduce sound reverberation with a calculated angular wooden pavilion overhead. Photograph via Dezeen.
Above: A wading pool on the roof of the modernist Cité radieuse building in Marseilles, France designed as part of the Unité d'habitation buildings by Le Corbusier and painter Nadir Afonso in 1952. Photograph by Heather Shimmin.
Above: A small pool in New Zealand by Herbst Architects; see more in Hardscaping 101: Gabion Walls.
Above: A Brutalist-style swimming pool by Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects, designed as part of French developer Christian Bourdais' Solo Houses Project in Matarraña, Spain. Photograph by Christobal Palma via Yatzer.
Above: A simple infinity pool with a coping edge by Edmund Hollander Design on Long Island's East End.
Above: A swimming pool in the glass courtyard at The Row store in Los Angeles, a space once owned by Neil Diamond and redesigned by Montalba Architects. Photograph by Donato Sardella.
Above: Double pools meld into the landscape at a house in Kortrijk, Belgium; architecture by Vincent van Duysen.
For further aquatic inspiration, see our posts:
- The Dark Mirror: A Backyard Reflecting Pool in Eastern Europe.
- Landscape Architect Visit: Bernard Trainor's Most Beautiful Swimming Pool.
- Steal This Look: A Charleston Pool Pavilion with an Outdoor Shower.
- Summer Roundup: 12 Great Pool Houses.
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