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If a private swimming pool is still considered a luxury, a covered pool might at first be classified as the ultimate extravagance. But enclosed pools do have a practical benefit: they can be used year-round.

Building a different Pool

Some owners consider that to be a worthwhile feature, though the heating costs can be high. Other owners and architects deal more economically with their enclosed pools by installing solar equipment.

Building a greenhouse-type structure is a frequent method of enclosure, whether the pool is connected to the house or freestanding. But the actual placement of a glass house in a landscape is never an arbitrary decision. Architects and designers often choose either to separate it from or to integrate it into the surroundings.

Two separated heating pool heating systems

The idea was to create a contrast between the dramatic tropical environment inside and the plantings outside,'' explained Robert Badia, an architect who renovated an enclosure for a 25-by-20-foot kidney-shaped pool in Englewood, N.J. A greenhouse 110 feet long, 16 feet high and 28 feet wide and situated off the breakfast room of the main house shelters a lush collection of palm trees and succulents. Conventional oil heating is used for pool and greenhouse.

There are two separate heating systems,'' Mr. Badia said, ''one to heat the water, the other to heat the pool house.'' In summer the pool thermostat is set at 80 degrees, and automatic vents in the glass structure open to let in fresh air when the inside temperature goes up. In winter the greenhouse thermostat is set at 55 degrees. The pool is filled with plastic balls that retain the heat.

Greenhouse Pool Structure

A couple, both psychiatrists, who live outside Washington hired an architect to convert their Victorian carriage house into a pool house. They also decided to add a 10-by-50-foot pool 6 feet deep.

The idea was to make a greenhouse pool structure that would look natural as an addition to the Victorian house, said Winthrop Faulkner, an architect with Wilkes Faulkner Jenkins & Bass, a Washington firm. The building was in such disrepair that it had to be rebuilt, he said, adding: ''That gave us the opportunity to put in a basement to house the pool and solar heating equipment. The solar equipment helps heat the pool and partly heats the greenhouse and carriage house.

A steel-and-glass greenhouse built over an existing pool near Paris was described by its architect, Antoine Stinco, as a geometric folly. The structure, measuring 45 feet by 30, appears larger than it is and, according to Mr. Stinco, is ''both machine and caprice.''

One goal of the design was to make the greenhouse look as if it had been there for a long time and to encourage the surrounding vegetation to encroach on it. In the beginning Mr. Stinco thought of painting the greenhouse white but decided to have it dark green on the outside and light green inside. Like the two sides of a leaf,'' he explained.

The greenhouse has panels that can be opened and is equipped with hot-air ducts that help cut down on condensation. ''The comforts of man are different from those of plants,'' the architect said.