MPBAA 2022 Gold Award · Yarra Valley
Award-Winning 11.8m X-Trainer with Spa, Yarra Valley VIC
2022 MPBAA Australian Pool & Spa Awards Gold — Best Residential Fibreglass, Acrylic or Vinyl-Lined Pool and Spa Combination. A lap-length 11.8m pool with attached spa, set on an 800mm slope that the landscape designer turned into an almost-disappearing edge across the Yarra Valley view.
Pool
X-Trainer 11.8
Colour
Pacific
Install
Structural edge beam
Awards
MPBAA 2022 Gold
The Build
Inside the install
Seven angles of an award-winning build set into the Yarra Valley slope — with the landscape doing as much of the work as the pool itself.
The Project
A slope, a structural edge beam, and a landscape designer who turned both into a feature
The site sloped 800mm over six metres — not extreme by Yarra Valley standards, but enough to force a decision. Retaining wall, or work with the slope? With the right structural edge beam built into the pool and a landscape designer (Amescape) reading the site properly, the slope became the disappearing edge of the view. The result won 2022 MPBAA Gold.
The brief
A busy working family needed an easy-to-own pool and spa — with Yarra Valley views as the backdrop.
The clients work long hours and didn’t want a maintenance commitment. They wanted a pool long enough for genuine lap swimming, a spa they could heat separately for winter use, and a finish that enhanced the Yarra Valley setting rather than competing with it.
Working with the slope, not against it
800mm of fall over six metres — the landscape designer used it to create an almost-disappearing edge across the valley view.
The natural fall of the site became the design opportunity. Amescape’s landscape work used the existing levels to create the visual effect of a disappearing edge along one side of the pool — without the structural complexity of an actual infinity-edge build. The water finishes against the lower deck level, the eye runs straight out to the valley.
Structural edge beam built into the design
No independent retaining wall needed — the pool’s own edge beam carries the load.
Where another build would have called for a retaining wall to hold back the slope, we engineered the structural edge beam of the pool itself to carry the load. One element doing two jobs: pool enclosure and slope retention. Fewer concrete elements visible from any angle, lower total cost, cleaner finish.
Easy ownership for a busy family
Vantage in pool and spa, separable spa heating — designed to run on autopilot.
In-floor cleaning across both vessels, one filtration loop, one circulation system. The spa is plumbed so it can be heated together with the pool in summer or isolated for hot-only running in winter. Once a week the family checks chemistry; otherwise the pool runs itself.
At a Glance
Project specifications
Pool & design
- Shape
- X-Trainer 11.8 × 4.2m
- Spa
- X-Trainer spa 2.8m × 1.8m
- Colour
- Bi-luminite Pacific
- Install type
- Structural edge beam built into pool design (no separate retaining wall)
- Site
- 800mm fall over 6m, treated as feature edge
- Location
- Yarra Valley VIC
- Landscape
- Amescape
Features & equipment
- Cleaning
- Vantage in-floor self-cleaning (pool & spa)
- Spa heating
- Separable from pool
- Use
- Lap swimming + spa + view-enhancement
- Award
- MPBAA 2022 Gold — Best Residential Fibreglass, Acrylic or Vinyl-Lined Pool and Spa Combination
Why Compass For Sloping Yarra Valley Sites
Four reasons this won Gold
Peer-judged best fibreglass pool-and-spa combination in Australia, 2022. Three things made it work: the slope strategy, the structural beam, and the landscape designer.
MPBAA Gold 2022
Best Residential Fibreglass, Acrylic or Vinyl-Lined Pool and Spa Combination. Peer-judged at the Master Pool Builders Association of Australia awards — national recognition for the integration between pool, spa and site.
Structural edge beam
The pool’s own edge beam carries the slope retention load. No independent retaining wall, fewer visible concrete elements, cleaner finish. Engineering integrated into the build design, not bolted on after.
Vantage across both vessels
In-floor cleaning in pool AND spa — one unified system. Busy working family doesn’t have to think about it. Once a week chemistry check, otherwise the pool runs itself.
Landscape collaboration
Working with Amescape on the surrounding landscape turned the 800mm slope into the feature edge of the view. Pool design and landscape design as one project, not two.
Yarra Valley build?
Lilydale, Healesville, Yarra Glen, Coldstream, Yarra Junction, Warburton, Dixons Creek, Christmas Hills — we build across the Yarra Valley. Free site inspection.
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