House with pool, Kirtipur

A pool on a valley plot is a plumbing and maintenance decision before it is a luxury one, and it takes up ground the house also wants.

The answer here is to make it the courtyard. The three bedrooms and the living wing are wrapped around the water on two sides, glazed towards it, so the pool doubles as the light well and the outlook for rooms that would otherwise face a boundary wall. The drawing is a cutaway plan rather than a view — it shows how the rooms sit against the water, which is the point of the scheme.