A Grand Pool House for a Grand Hotel in Sri Lanka

Situated in the Tea Valley of the Nuwara Eliya district in central Sri Lanka, The Grand Hotel sits surrounded by lush green mountains and misty grey peaks. It’s the ideal location for an exclusive getaway where guests can enjoy the very height of luxury.

The hotel wanted to create a spacious, light-filled Grand Spa and Mindfulness Studio, complete with a swimming pool, gym and Balinese spa offering a range of holistic therapies. It was important to the client to build something that would blend with the hotel’s historic character while offering all the modern conveniences one would expect from an opulent hotel.

For this project, we provided a supply only service, preparing working drawings of a new Roof Lantern, glazed door sets and 110 meters of fascia and mouldings in cut lengths, made to measure for the 127-year-old building. The extensive glazing helps to open the room up in the most spectacular way, connecting the interior with the hotel’s beautiful surroundings and offering expansive views.

The impeccably designed roof lantern with classic ball finials catches your attention as soon as you walk into the spa, helping the room to feel bright and airy. Rays of early morning sunlight stream down into the water below, and cleverly positioned indoor lighting means that the pool can be used after the sun has gone down. The glass in the roof lantern is laid on a special glazing gasket, fixed down and sealed with aluminium capping which helps to make the roof maintenance free. Two electronic roof vents can be opened at any time to help with ventilation and temperature control, which are two highly essential considerations for a pool house in warmer climates.

Seven Casement windows were incorporated into the design, with two to open per frame and the rest fixed. Oversized internal window cills give an elegant and period aesthetic, which gives the room a touch of grandeur and balances out the taller window heights. Nine glazed door sets with fanlights were also included, along with a pair of outward-opening double doors with a bolection mould.

All the doors and windows have high insulating, 4-20-4mm toughened glass units with Low-E coating to the inner leaf, with argon gas-filled cavities and warm edge spacer bars. Where the roof will have a lot of exposure to the sun, the lantern has high insulating, 4-16-4mm toughened glass units with Soft Low-E coating to the inner leaf. Distressed antique brass door and window ironmongery gives a classic look, and beautifully offsets the Westbury White joinery.