Float through this 25-metre crystal clear, acrylic pool that stretches between two buildings. There’s no other pool like it in the world.
Spanning the Embassy Gardens’ Legacy Buildings, the Sky Pool is the world’s first ‘floating’ swimming pool. Once installed, the 25-metre long acrylic pool will allow members of the development’s exclusive Eg:le Club to glide between buildings 35 metres up in the sky.
Concept
On a hot summer’s day in 2013, our creative teams gathered to discuss where to locate Embassy Gardens’ outdoor swimming pool. We decided the only space large enough was between the Legacy Buildings. As thinking developed, the gauntlet was thrown down: the pool should be a sky pool, something transparent so swimmers could see the ground, and people below could see the sky.
Production
We involved Hal Currey and Arup Associates, the architects bringing Sir Terry Farrell’s master plan for the area and development to life. They worked with structural engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan to develop detailed drawings, showing how the 14-metre distance could be spanned by an acrylic structure.
After a series of technical drawings and behavioural analyses, the dimensions of the pool were decided. With sides 200mm thick and 3.2 metres deep, and with a bottom 300mm thick, the 50-tonne acrylic pool will span the 14-metres between the buildings, with steps and filtrations systems sitting either end, and five modes of lighting to add to the feeling of magic.
Delivery
This year, the Sky Pool will be manufactured ready for transportation to Embassy Gardens, either across land or along the River Thames. If it comes by road, traffic lights and bollards will need to be taken down. If it arrives by river, Nine Elms Lane closed for the day to lift it from the Thames.
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The story of Embassy Gardens
When the US Embassy created a modern embassy building in Nine Elms, it became the cultural anchor for this new district.