Welcome to In The Studio from the BBC World Service.

The program that follows some of the most creative minds in the world

as they develop an idea from its very beginning through

the artistic process right up to its introduction to an audience. I'm Ellie Simmons,

a five-time Paralympic Gold Medalist and a big fan of swimming pools.

But I haven't ever really considered what it takes to design and build these magnificent buildings.

In this episode of In The Studio,

we're traveling to the Netherlands

to meet a group of architects at Van Hoven CS,

a company who specialise in designing public pools and leisure centres.

We're going to follow one of their architects as they sign off a huge project in Zutomere and start another in Delft.

But before we meet the Van Hoven team I want to know exactly how to go about designing and building a swimming pool.

Step up, Chris Romer Lee, the co-founder of Architecture practice, Studio Octopie, and a huge swimming advocate.

He's designed a few pools in his time, so it can definitely help us here.

Over to you, Chris. So to build a pool, you need to find a site.

Now the site is usually provided by the landowner, which usually is the council.

We would then be able to write a brief.

Concept designs will lead into a planning application,

and the planning application then gets opened up to the community

for consultation and response.

When that is all agreed, we then move in. for consultation and response.

When that is all agreed, we then move into a detailed design stage.

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