In the Southern Highlands an hour’s drive south of Sydney, a region known for its vineyards and mild climate, landscape designer Nicholas Bray encountered sweeping views and a low-slung house with Colorbond metal sheeting on his client’s 100-acre property. “It’s modern and very Australian,” he said.
The challenge? To design a swimming pool easily accessible from the house—but with its own separate identity.
The solution? A pool with a simple silhouette, an open-air pavilion and a strikingly simple Corten steel fence. Grand sweeps of golden grasses connect the pool and pavilion to the larger landscape. And a series of garden improvements—including metal landscape edging—define the curves of a gently sloped lawn to visually connect the main house to the swimming pool pavilion.
Photography courtesy of Nicholas Bray Landscapes.
![Corten steel fence panels seem to float but actually are fixed to a concrete footing, hidden by plantings of native perennial tussock grass (Poa labillardierei).](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/swimming-ool-overhang-corten-steel-fence-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
Known as Poa lab, low-maintenance tussock grass clumps grow along roadsides in Australia and look their best if cut back every two to three years during the off season.
![The custom fence panels vary in size on the eastern side of the pool; widths range from 300 to 600 millimeters (approximately \1\2 and \23.5 inches, respectively).](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/swimming-pool-corten-fence-grasses-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
![Surrounding the pool is a tiled concrete deck.](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/swimming-pool-pavilion-landscape-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
Inside the pool pavilion is a fireplace. “The pool is oriented north, so the pavilion gets some sun but is shaded by the roof,” Bray said.
![A Sunbather Automatic Security Pool Cover keeps a low profile and disappears beneath the edge of the pool when it is fully retracted.](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/swimming-pool-corten-fence-automatic-pool-cover-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
![Opposite the wide-paneled fence is a fence designed with narrow, 65-millimeter plates to create visual contrast.](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/swimming-pool-corten-fence-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
![The pool pavilion is an open-air structure with a solid wall on the southern side to protect the space from southwesterly winds, Bray said.](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/pavers-stepping-stone-path-australia-nicholas-bray-733x547.jpg)
![Steel landscape edging surrounds planting beds and echoes the style and material of the Cor-ten poolside fence.](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/corten-steel-retaining-walls-landscape-edging-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
![Steel edging follows the curves of the land to create informal steps on the front lawn, Bray said.](https://media.gardenista.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/retaining-walls-corten-australia-nicholas-bray-733x489.jpg)
Are you designing a new swimming pool (or upgrading an existing one)? Start with our design guide to Swimming Pools 101 in our Hardscape 101 section. Read more:
- Hardscaping 101: Natural Swimming Pools
- Ask the Expert: An Insider’s Guide to Swimming Pool Design from Scott Lewis
- 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from Australia
- Architect Visit: An Indoor-Outdoor House in Australia
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