Although there might just be as many Baroque churches in Flanders as there are towns and villages, what is certain, is that not many of them have a rooftop swimming pool placed right next to them. So when a client of design studio dmvA architecten requested a swimming pool for his house in Grimbergen (a small town on the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium), the designers didn’t miss the opportunity to create a panoramic pool terrace overlooking the 1660 basilica of Saint Servatius standing across the street. Code-named ‘Swimming Pool K’, this striking feature has been placed atop an old school building, bought by the client as an expansion to his existing bachelor’s house. In order to support the heavy volume of the pool, a new supporting structure made of fortified concrete had to be constructed within the building, left exposed in order to function as a decorative element in the space right under the pool. The pool terrace itself was, on the contrary, given a more polished and minimal look, with white seamless surfaces and simple lines throughout – an effect which creates an arresting contrast with the towering basilica in the backdrop. The rest of the old school building was transformed into a multi-purpose two-storey residential space complete with kitchen, dining area, living room and storage. Both the pool and the renovation of the building were completed in 2011.