I especially enjoy working with community groups who share my enthusiasm for outdoor swimming – and collaboration with these groups is a theme that runs throughout my entire portfolio. 

 in Lewes is run by one such group of enthusiasts and, with Studio Octopi, I have worked with them to develop a masterplan that reconsiders the swimming experience and rationalises the existing pavilions.

It’s a special place, being the oldest outdoor freshwater public swimming baths still in operation in the UK. Opened in 1861, the pool is fed by a spring, and the water gradually warmed by the sun throughout the summer. Wanting it to remain at the centre of the community for another hundred years, our emphasis in the proposals is on material reuse and small interventions that will preserve its legacy for many more years to come.

Preserving the legacy of a community pool

Pells Pool

As a designer, researcher and advocate for swim sites across the world, I connect people to water.

Chris Romer-Lee

I’ve been a swimmer for as long as I can remember. As co-founder of architecture practice Studio Octopi, I developed a portfolio of pools, baths and swim-site strategy alongside projects on dry land. In 2025 I set up my own consultancy, focused on getting more people swimming and improving access to water.

I work with organisations to design and refurbish lidos, baths and bathing places, and have become an expert in urban swimming and tidal pools. My research and writing work demonstrates how such swim sites can become a focus for healthy communities and improved ecologies. Through collaboration with government bodies I also advocate for better access to swim sites of all kinds.