Early humans probably swam for survival, but evidence suggests that many people began to enjoy it as a recreation thousands of years ago. Prehistoric art (e.g. cave paintings) depicts people swimming, and there is evidence that swimming “for pleasure in lakes, rivers and seas” was practised at the time of early civilisations. For example, the Indus Valley city of Mohenjo-Daro (2600 BC) contained a large public pool measuring 12×7 m, probably used for ritual bathing.
Egyptian funerary art and Mesopotamian reliefs show people swimming; Gilgamesh and Greek myths also mention athletic swimming. Wealthy elites built private pools: Gaius Maecenas (Rome, 1st century BC) installed the first known heated plunge pool in his gardens, and late Imperial villas often had elaborate baths.
In particular, a recent excavation at Pompeii revealed a large private bath complex in a villa, complete with heated rooms and a large pool courtyard.
This photograph of the bathhouse of a Pompeian villa shows that even 2,000 years ago the wealthy could enjoy swimming and bathing, with hot, warm and cold rooms for relaxation.
Even in ancient times, water features were deeply integrated into architecture for practical purposes. Ancient architects dug canals and aqueducts to irrigate fields and supply cities. By the Babylonian period (c. 3000 BC), builders were carving stone pools to bring water from springs or canals to public spaces. In ancient Greece and Rome, fountains often served both as decoration and as a water supply: the famous spring temple of Pyrene at Corinth, for example, provided shaded drinking pools, and Roman aqueducts fed numerous public fountains and baths.
Water thus supported urban life and hygiene: Baths in Rome, Bath (England) and elsewhere were primarily health facilities and only secondarily social spaces.
Swimming in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
After antiquity, the visibility of swimming declined in Europe. As one scholar has noted, because swimming was done in the nude, “it became less popular in the Early Modern period as society became more conservative”. Few public pools were built and swimming manuals did not appear until the 16th century (Leonardo da Vinci even sketched life jackets around 1490).
When Nikolaus Wynmann published the first swimming book in 1538, his aim was not sport, but safety and technique. The revival of swimming began in Britain and Northern Europe in the 17th-18th centuries: sea bathing became fashionable (in seaside resorts such as Brighton) and gentlemen’s clubs and gymnasiums opened pools for exercise. In London, St George’s Baths (Liverpool, 1828) was the first municipal indoor pool and heralded the proliferation of baths in the Victorian era.
Social reformers also utilised water for hygiene: In England, the Baths and Bathing Houses Act of 1844 authorised cities to build baths and swimming pools for the health of the working class. By the late 19th century, many European and American cities had public “public baths” that offered hot showers and pools to combat disease. Ironically, these pools were designed for cleanliness, but “working-class bathers” often used them for recreational purposes (Boston’s Cabot Street Bathhouse, built for hygiene in 1868, is a notorious example, where children were quick to “splash, swim and play” until it was closed by the authorities). The late 1800s also saw the rise of swimming as a sport: the modern Olympics (from 1896) and achievements such as Matthew Webb’s swim across the English Channel in 1875 led to widespread celebration of swimming.
The Rise of Private Swimming Pools in the 20th Century
Private pools remained rare luxuries until the 20th century. After the First World War, wealth and the new culture of celebrity made them fashionable. In the early years of Hollywood (circa 1916) stars built home pools for status and entertainment. (One of the first was a small “plunge” pool in Whitley Heights in 1916; another was Thomas Thorkildsen’s heart-shaped pool the same year.)
In England, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) installed a pool at Fort Belvedere in 1929-30, helping pools to become signs of high society. In the words of one architecture correspondent, “the craze for private swimming pools began after World War I ” and was linked to Hollywood glamour: In the 1920s, owning a pool was as much a status symbol as a noble dog.
During the 1920s-1930s several wealthy estates added pools (often hidden within formal gardens). For example, Sir Philip Sassoon’s villa in Kent in the 1920s featured a magnificent reflecting pool designed by Philip Tilden. But pools were still very expensive and rare. The next big change came with technology: In 1938 Philip Ilsley introduced shotcrete, which made underground pool construction faster and cheaper.
After the Second World War, other innovations created a boom. The number of private pools exploded in England and America. According to one report, the number of pools in the USA rose from 2,500 in 1948 to 57,000 in 1957. In the 1950-60s in the UK, many country houses and even suburban houses had indoor or outdoor pools. By the 1970s, images of poolside leisure were ubiquitous in films and advertising, and private pools had become a desirable feature of the middle class.
The Original Benefit of Water in Architecture
Long before ponds or fountains became decorative, the role of water in buildings was strictly functional. The earliest monumental water structures served irrigation and sanitation. Civilisations such as Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus used canals and aqueducts to bring river water to crops and cities. The Romans developed this with city aqueducts that supplied water to baths, toilets and public fountains. In medieval and early modern times, wells and cisterns performed similar tasks: many religious and civil complexes included baths and ablution facilities. For example, the courtyards of Islamic mosques traditionally had marble fountains for washing before prayer. Similarly, in Christian Europe, monasteries and Turkish baths had water tanks and cold immersion pools for ritual purification.
The 19th century made hygiene an architectural concern. Bathhouses were built not only to improve health but also to teach swimming (indeed, in some cultures leaders passed laws mandating swimming instruction). Municipal waterworks often doubled as ornamental fountains, but their primary purpose was still utilitarian: distributing drinking water. At Versailles (late 17th century) and in later city parks, fountains were largely built to dispense water with ornate fountains, symbolising technological mastery over nature. As the Encyclopædia Britannica notes, ornamental fountains date back to ancient Mesopotamia (a carved lagoon in Babylon, ca. 3000 BC) and were prominent in Greek and Roman cities. Thus even “decorative” fountains often originated as practical public water sources.
Water as Ornament and in Landscape Design
Over time, the architectural use of water shifted from pure utility to beauty and ambience. Formal gardens and civic spaces incorporated pools, fountains and streams as aesthetic features. From the 17th century onwards, European palace gardens made theatrical use of water: the fountains of Versailles, for example, spouted high fountains and flooded large parterres by reflecting the sky (in fact, one of the earliest “reflecting pools” is to be found in the Mughal paradise garden, the Taj Mahal in India). These reflecting pools – shallow, stagnant basins of water – have become a common motif for reflecting architecture. In Islamic and Persian gardens, a central pool and cross-axis water channels symbolised the four rivers of heaven. In the garden of the Taj Mahal, for example, there is a long rectangular pool whose fountains enliven the water and whose surface reflects the image of the mausoleum.
Water enriches the built environment here: At the Taj, it provides visual symmetry, cooling shade and the soothing sound of fountains. As one architectural historian has noted, water features “emphasise visual axes, reflect the surroundings and multiply the adjacent architecture” – transforming functional water into a poetic landscape.
Water gardens and ornamental ponds likewise have deep roots. Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians diverted Nile water into palace lotus ponds. Later cultures imitated nature: Persians and Greeks decorated gardens with statues and flowing streams, while East Asian gardens used ponds and koi fish for contemplation. During the Italian Renaissance, fountains and pools were designed as part of the architecture (the Villa d’Este water garden is a famous example), and ornamental pools even doubled as swimming pools for noble families. In English and American landscape design of the 18th-19th centuries, large lakes and serpentine ponds were often dammed in gardens to look like natural lakes.
Today, architects and landscape designers continue to use water creatively. In contemporary projects, pools, waterfalls and canals are used for both art and ecology. As ArchDaily observes, “over the centuries” architects have dealt with water in “endless innovative ways” such as playful pools, tranquil fountains and even working lakes. Modern fountains often recycle water and aerate it for cooling, and bioswale ponds capture rainwater in urban areas. In sum, water has long since ceased to be just a resource and has become a source of beauty and life in the built environment.
Architectural Development of Private Pools
Private pools began as privileged symbols of luxury and wealth and developed along with culture and technology. After the elite spas of antiquity (Roman imperial villas, royal pleasure pools), private domestic pools almost disappeared until the 20th century. The first modern private pools appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: for example, wealthy families in America and Europe built indoor pools for health and novelty. According to one report, a Boston coal magnate built a coal-heated indoor pool in 1887. However, private pools only became architecturally significant after World War I. In the 1920s and 30s, as ocean voyages and films exposed people to exotic villa lifestyles, outdoor pools were added to country and suburban estates. English manors and Hollywood villas had pools as status symbols.
Most sources cite “Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming in America ” , most sources state thatthe Cabot Street Bath in Boston was the first swimming pool in the United States. The facility opened in 1868 and served a neighbourhood where most homes did not have bathrooms. The facility was primarily intended to promote cleanliness among working-class residents, especially men, at a time when public health concerns such as cholera made sanitation an urgent issue.
However, Jeff Wiltse notes that at the time there was a widespread belief that cholera and other diseases were linked to poor hygiene, which motivated the establishment of such bathing facilities. The Cabot Street Baths had two 20 metre by 24 metre pools, one for men and one for women. It was thought that bathing would improve personal hygiene and reduce disease. Wiltse points out that, contrary to expectations, children account for about 97 per cent of bathers, possibly because they are the most vulnerable or because children’s schools and social activities create more opportunities for public swimming.
The concept of swimming pools as social and recreational spaces developed significantly in the following decades. The first public swimming pool built explicitly as a recreational and social centre was constructed in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1887. This pool was designed not only for exercise, but also as a communal space where people could gather, socialise and escape the summer heat – especially important before the advent of modern air conditioning.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the development of residential pools began among America’s wealthy elite. One of the earliest examples was at the Vanderbilt estate in Asheville, North Carolina, built in 1895. These private pools became symbols of status and leisure, often showcasing the latest in pool technology and luxury features. Wealthy families across the country followed in Vanderbilt’s footsteps, building elaborate pools on their estates that further segregated social classes and contributed to the growing popularity of swimming as a leisure activity.
In the middle of the century, pool construction was reshaped by new materials and mass culture. The invention of shotcrete in 1938 meant that pools could be built more quickly and in a variety of ways, democratising pool architecture. In the 1950-60s house builders routinely included backyard pools. State-subsidised suburban developments often had communal swimming facilities, but private pools became increasingly common in middle-class homes. In the late 20th and 21st centuries, pool architecture became even more diverse: from infinity pools on roof terraces to natural “swimming pools”. High-tech systems allow year-round indoor pools, even in cold climates. In the process, pools have become an integral part of luxury residential design and have evolved from an exotic novelty to an everyday comfort.
From ancient bathing basins to today’s landscaped lagoons, water has enriched architecture and recreation throughout history. Early civilisations built pools for ceremony and exercise; the Romans turned bathing into a public spectacle; after thousands of years of ups and downs, swimming became a global pastime in the 19th century. Meanwhile, architects have always glorified water: first as irrigation and hygiene, then as fountains, reflecting pools and garden ponds.
In every era, cultural values and technology have shaped the role of the pool – from Cleopatra’s exotic pleasure pools to Indian Mughal reflecting pools, Hollywood mansions and modern green designs. In short, the journey of water in architecture parallels that of recreation: functional origins have given way to aesthetic innovations, making pools and fountains timeless elements of human environments.