FRANCIS JOHNSON AND PARTNERS

Pool House, Northamptonshire

This new pool house stands at some distance from the main house. The pavilion contains a full-height living room, 25ft long with an open timber roof, flanked by changing rooms and a kitchen.

The design has a French flavour, with external shutters, echoing the garden with its pleached trees and box. The rusticated doorcase, oeil de boeuf dormers and French quoins all evoke the dix-huitieme.

The stonework is Clipsham, and the brickwork of the walls is exceptionally fine. An orange multi handmade Hastings brick from Ibstock was chosen, and laid with 5mm penny-struck joints in lime mortar in Flemish bond.

The whole complex, including the recreational garden and the French pavilion, makes a summery retreat of a type which is becoming one of the distinctive adjuncts of the 21st century English house, with its provision for informal but civilised living in an age of global warming.