POOLS GO SKY-HIGH
26 Aug 2015
A glass 'sky pool' is planned to be suspended between apartment blocks in London's new Nine Elms quarter.
A glass ‘sky pool’ is planned to be suspended between apartment blocks in London's new Nine Elms quarter. The 25m long pool will link two blocks of apartments that form part of the 2,000-home Embassy Gardens development by London architects HAL, now in its second stage.
At 5m wide and 3m deep, the pool will allow residents to swim between the two buildings while enjoying views of London through the pool's completely transparent 20 cm glass casing.
The residential blocks will also feature a rooftop bar, spa and orangery. An additional bridge forms a second link, allowing residents and visitors to walk between the buildings as well as paddle.
Although developers in London claim this is the world's first sky pool, an even more extreme suspended glass-bottomed swimming pool is already underway in India.
The five-tower Twilight Star development in Surat, Gujarat, will feature a 20m long, 7m wide suspended swimming pool that is entirely transparent. It will link two residential blocks in much the same way as the London Nine Elms sky pool.
This pool will be built using similar technology that is employed to construct large aquarium tunnels, though it is not clear what materials will be used.
Despite obvious similarities between the two developments, the Twilight Star swimming pool features a section that projects outward from the buildings – allowing residents to swim beyond the external walls and float over the city.
The Twilight Star pool is also suspended higher up, connecting the 12th storeys of the apartment blocks, as opposed to London's 10th-storey proposal.
Additionally, all of the five towers at Twilight Star will be joined with a glass-bottomed sky walk, allowing residents to move between each of the buildings.
The project is being developed by local company 7 Star and will include 120 residences. The site is located approximately 3km from Udhana Railway Station and 18 km from Surat airport.
Construction is already underway and is scheduled for completion in mid-2016, almost a year before London's Nine Elms development is due to be finalised.
Images (top to bottom): (1 & 2) London Sky Pool; (3 to 5) Twilight Star Rooftop Pool.
