The Torban Hall legacy: part II — the pool house

The second phase of the Torban Hall project, which was run in tandem with the main house renovation, was the design and build of a 200-sq-metre detached leisure suite. The house had been purchased with an outdoor swimming pool positioned immediately outside an add-on conservatory, leaving barely enough space to walk around it to access the rear gardens. 

This area would instead become a raised indoor-outdoor seating area, with steps down to a lower dining terrace and outdoor kitchen, next to which the single-storey modern structure could be tucked for minimal visual impact.

The new pool house was designed under permitted development rules to blend into the landscape. Its double-tiered roof was a carefully specified design, staying within planning restrictions which allow a maximum 3-metre central roof height with 2.4-metre lower eaves. A sedum roof, encased by a stepped aluminium plinth, softens the structure, and the fully glazed perimeter, matched to that of the main house, bridges seamlessly with the gardens beyond.

“The pool house was designed to meet permitted development requirements for detached outbuildings,” says Jonathan. “As such, it did not require planning permission. However, it did need to meet a stringent set of parameters. Externally, our brief was for the new building to sit quietly next to the historic house, acting as a backdrop for Taylor Tripp’s wonderful landscaping scheme.”

Detached from the main house but carefully positioned to sit into the nook of its end-most recessed section, the pool house belongs in its space. 

Inside, white galvanised steel posts sit atop cool Italian stone tiles (blending into the York stone outside) and transition seamlessly into the sprung timber floor of the adjoining gym. Behind a raised and recessed timber partition, which runs the length of the pool room, is a steam room, a feature shower and twin changing rooms. Concealed behind hidden doors are a storage room, plant room and WC. To create a self-contained leisure suite, the gym also includes a separate laundry and a built-in kitchenette.

Outside, Taylor Tripp’s landscape design integrates seamlessly with JDA+I’s architectural and interior vision. The six acres include formal gardens, orchards, lakeside plantings, wildflower meadows, and multiple outdoor living areas, all anchored by a reimagined grand driveway — a spectacular environment meticulously brought to life and maintained by Landform.

“To blend the property with the surrounding countryside and anchor the contemporary pool house to its setting, we surrounded the lower terrace in soft, relaxed, romantic planting,” says Richard Taylor, director at Taylor Tripp. Bespoke water pools reflect the sky, attract birds and provide ambient sound whilst dining on the terrace and enhancing the experience of pool users inside.”

Barr Build are proud, alongside JDA+I, to have fulfilled our clients’ dreams for their home and to have played a part in the continued legacy of Torban Hall as a place of leisure, retreat, relaxation and most of all of family.