A swimming pool can be a place to exercise, unwind, entertain or simply escape the heat. For the owners of one Clifton Hill home, the ambition was to create a space that could do all of those things - without feeling like a collection of separate features.

Their brief to Melbourne pool designer and builder Laguna brought together relaxation, fitness, wellness, resort-style living and entertaining. It also came with a challenging site and a clear aesthetic expectation: the pool needed to feel as though it had always belonged within the landscape.

The result is a curved, freestanding pool, spa and integrated cold plunge that would go on to become one of Laguna's most recognised projects, receiving eight Gold Awards at the 2025 SPASA Awards of Excellence.

Designing around the way a home is lived in

From the beginning, the Clifton Hill project was shaped as much by the owners' daily routines as by the architecture of the backyard.

Views were particularly important. The water needed to sit at eye level when viewed from inside the home, without conventional pool fencing interrupting the connection between the house, water and garden. The owners had also paid close attention to how sunlight moved through the backyard, wanting spaces for morning sun as well as an entertaining area that captured the last western light of the day.

Laguna's solution was an 8.5 x 4.5-metre main pool alongside a 3.5 x 2-metre spa, integrated into a flowing design with a cold plunge and continuous infinity edge. The pool was embedded within a sunken wet-edge pit surrounded by multi-tiered planting, helping preserve uninterrupted views while meeting pool-barrier requirements.

Rather than designing the landscape around a finished pool, the water, garden beds, steps and planting were conceived as a connected composition.

“The most successful projects are the ones where the pool feels like a natural extension of the home,” says Laguna Director Glenn Maxton. “It’s not about adding a feature, it’s about creating a lifestyle.”

Three water zones, one continuous form

One of Clifton Hill's defining features is the integration of three water zones - the main pool, spa and cold plunge - each serving a different purpose and operating at its own temperature.

The spa and cold plunge allow the owners to move between hot and cold immersion, while the main pool accommodates everything from tethered laps and children's play, to relaxation. An integrated bench seat runs along the main pool for lounging and socialising, while a curved entry continues the project's preference for soft rather than angular transitions.

Bisazza Delhi mosaic tiles introduce a subtle shimmer to the water, complemented by irregular limestone paving and layered planting that follows the curves of the pool.

A HALO Pure swim system was also incorporated to provide a low-chemical swimming environment, adding another wellness consideration to the design.

Making a complex pool look effortless

Behind the restrained finished design is considerably more engineering than first meets the eye.

The pool, spa and cold plunge operate at different water levels and temperatures, while a balance tank effectively creates a fourth body of water within the hydraulic system. Each of the three primary zones also incorporates an infinity wet edge.

The site added further complications. A large easement and deep sewer asset restricted placement, while a heritage overlay, mature trees, changing ground levels, drainage requirements and neighbouring properties all had to be considered. Heating and filtration equipment was ultimately distributed across different areas of the property to manage limited space and acoustic impacts.

Construction gives some indication of the scale hidden beneath the finished landscape. More than 200 cubic metres of soil was excavated, almost 90 cubic metres of concrete was required and approximately four tonnes of steel went into supporting the structure and its custom curves. CNC-cut formwork produced from 3D CAD files helped achieve the required geometry, while curved sections of the glass mosaic finish were painstakingly laid in strips rather than sheets.

It is this contrast between technical complexity and visual simplicity, that perhaps best explains the project's success.

An award-winning result

At the 2025 SPASA Awards of Excellence, Clifton Hill received eight Gold Awards across state and national categories, with honours including Pool Landscape Design, Best In-Ground Pool and Spa of the Year.

Yet its strongest design lesson may be less about any individual feature than how those features work together.

The pool responds to the home's sightlines, the movement of the sun, the surrounding garden and, most importantly, the way its owners wanted to use the space throughout the day and across the seasons.

As Maxton puts it: “Clifton Hill is a glimpse into the future of pool design - where wellness, technology and lifestyle come together seamlessly.”