Dezeen Magazine

Claesson Koivisto Rune

Chevron-patterned parquet covers swimming pools and spa house by Claesson Koivisto Rune

Zigzagging parquet covers every surface of the swimming pools, spa buildings and patio designed by Stockholm studio Claesson Koivisto Rune for an 18th-century mansion in the south of Sweden.

Claesson Koivisto Rune

The facilities are raised on a podium above a gently sloping lawn, allowing bathers to take in the grounds of the neoclassical mansion.

Claesson Koivisto Rune covered the podium, pools and spa buildings in a uniform layer of chevron-patterned parquet, made from pieces of light-toned timber and white laser-cut tiles.

Claesson Koivisto Rune

A pair of small gabled blocks covered in tiles frame two edges of the outdoor pool. This is lined in the same chevron-patterned tiles as the cladding and surrounded by a stretch of wooden decking laid in a zigzagging design of the same scale.

Claesson Koivisto Rune

The larger of the two blocks, which has openings in its flanks and ends, contains a table and benches for outdoor dining. One opening provides direct access to the pool, while another fronted by a black balustrade faces out toward the leafy grounds.

Claesson Koivisto Rune

The smaller volume is completely enclosed, with a concealed door in each gable. It contains a staircase that descends into a spa set in the base of the podium below the outdoor pool.

Claesson Koivisto Rune

"The two spa areas are each other's mirrors. The outside is protruding while the inside is hollowed out. But both share the same patterned concept," said the design team.

"Lending inspiration from the Gustavian neoclassical mansion in general and parquet floor patterns from the time in particular, the concept is built on the chevron," they continued. "The spa harmonises with the mansion in proportions but does not recreate the historic style."

Claesson Koivisto Rune

Brown tinted glass divides up the facilities inside the space, including a sauna, shower room and a narrow pool – also lined in zigzagging tile and timber parquet.

Claesson Koivisto Rune

The coloured glazing and the blue of the water against the tiles are the only accents of colour in the otherwise pale space.

"The water itself is not treated as a transparent 'nothing' but as a visible element and one of the materials on the palette," explained the architects.

"The oversized tiles are white, which allows them to be coloured turquoise by the depth of the water. Each step down into the pool thus is a deeper hue of turquoise."

Claesson Koivisto Rune

Architecture and design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune recently unveiled its first collection for Swedish furniture brand Dux in a photoset taken by the architectural photographer Fernando Guerra in a Portuguese vineyard.

Although much more prolific in its furniture and product design, the studio has also designed several buildings, including an art gallery honouring Donald Judd in Texas and an ombre house that curves around an oak tree in Sweden.

Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.

More images

Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune
Claesson Koivisto Rune