Detailed-information from Carmody Groarke:
The client’s brief was to create a place for exercise and relaxation beneath the a nineteenth century mansion, as part of an extensive renovation to create a new private family home. Their brief was clear – a space to be discovered underground, and of entirely different character to the house above. As its most fundamental principle the space, excavated from the bedrock of the site, seeks punches of daylight from wherever possible at ground level. Underground, the simple sculptural treatment of stone, plaster and water are given definition by a subtle mixture of natural and artificial light. The main stone-lined space contains a 17 metre long, stone-lined swimming pool and is surrounded by smaller stone blocks containing treatment rooms – sauna, spa and gymnasium.
The undulating form of the plaster ceiling which hovers above the pool, conceals all the technical equipment for the pool-space environment, revealing only a halo affect of daylight and artificial lighting.
Client: Private
Location Limerick, Ireland
Status: Completed November 2008
Photography: Christian Richters
