Maybe you long for a pool to cool you off during the hot months, but your skinny yard won't hold one. Or perhaps you're an all-business kind of swimmer: You want to get in, plow through your workout and dry off without so much as a winding-down soak. Whichever the case, lap pools — long, narrow pools designed for rhythmic strokes — are your answer. Need inspiration? Check out these eight inventive takes. House + House Architects Still and unbroken, this sliver of a pool feels like a perfect sheet of glass. This is a simply ingenious approach. A glass wall at one end of the home transforms a simple lap pool into an aquarium-style display, set off by the serene, wooded setting. It lends the illusion that the water floats in midair. A modular metal canopy over this pool provides strategic stretches of shade and helps to anchor the pool visually to the main house. Lewis Aquatech Lap pools don't have to be outdoors. Wide, generous windows provide enough natural light that the space doesn't feel oppressive, and having a roof overhead means you can enjoy a swim in bad weather. Lang Pools Inc. One end of this lap pool is walled off to create a hot tub. The layout provides twice the functionality without the need for a space-swallowing footprint. Studio William Hefner Lap pools can double as reflecting pools, and the one that abuts this villa-style home gives the landscape the air of a formal estate. Da Vida Pools, LLC, Andre Del Re & Lisa North, CBP Raised walls lined in red tile turn this infinity-edge lap pool into an oversize piece of sculpture. A patio juts over it so that swimmers don't have to hike their legs over the sides to enter. www.KarlGercens.com Here's another, completely different approach to the raised look. Weathered, coved borders create a stately, storied feel that falls in step with the lush gardens and grass-pocked brick walkway.

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