Daydream about escaping into an aquatic paradise of your very own in the form of a modern swimming pool that puts swimmers on display with a glass floor, appears in your ballroom at the push of a button or seems to blend right into a tropical sea on the horizon. These drool-worthy swim spots include a private living room pool in a five-story New York City townhouse, an interior courtyard pool accessible by a glass hatch in the floor, and a shady oasis in a Grecian cave.
Cantilevered Rooftop Pool with a Glass Floor
Not only does this swimming pool cantilever off the roof of a modern concrete home in coastal Spain “so the beach and sea can always be seen while sunbathing or swimming,” it’s got a glass floor so swimmers can be seen from the terrace below. Jellyfish House by Wiel Arets Architects features a staircase that goes straight from the yard to the rooftop for a beach-to-pool experience, and the pool can be seen from nearly all areas of the house.
Secret Under-Floor Pools
Even the ultra-rich have space concerns sometimes, or maybe they just really like cool things that appear and disappear at the touch of a button, like the rest of us. Either way, ‘Hydro Floors’ enable them to basically conjure a swimming pool out of nowhere on command with mobile flooring that can be stopped at various intervals to create pools of different depths. Push the button again to watch the water seep out of the way so the floor space can be used for dining, dancing or whatever else it is that people with too much money do with that kind of space.
Glass-Walled Above-Ground Modern Pool
The lush lawn of this house by Andres Remy Architects in Devoto, Argentina gently rises to meet the edge of a wooden deck surrounding an unusual above-ground pool. The pool features one glass side for a fishbowl-like view from the outside and an infinity effect from the swimmer’s perspective.
Slice House by Procter-Rihl
The Slice House in Porto-Alegre, Brazil by Procter-Rihl Architects features a complex prismatic geometric layout that generates “a series of spatial illusions in the interior spaces,” including a view right into the rooftop swimming pool from the dining room.
Indoor/Outdoor Living Room Pool
A glass hatch in the concrete floor of an urban townhouse can simply be lifted out of the way to provide access to a swimming pool, right under a retractible glass roof, creating a private and protected indoor/outdoor space on demand.
