On a thickly forested site, a group of buildings and play fields stand disconnected. The shore and waters of the lake are the only consistent features throughout; nevertheless, somehow always over there. To bring together the lake, forest and disparate elements on the property, Pool Pavilion’s site strategy implements a series of precise landscape and architectural interventions.

First, the project clears a central area of the forest. The clearing becomes the locus of indoor and outdoor programming, a central gathering space, a viewing platform for the rest of the site. The sloping cleared ground is then cut and lifted. This rift allows the program to bifurcate between two ground planes, the Pool Pavilion itself becoming the transition between the newly created upper and lower levels. Finally, the rift is sculpted to orient spaces towards views and to create a unified and disappearing whole. An opening is punched into the surface to create a sunken courtyard. A portion of the sunken courtyard is popped up to create a vertical element, an interior “lookout” space.