The world’s first 360-degree rooftop infinity pool is set to shimmer atop a 55-story skyscraper in London, featuring transparent acrylic walls on all sides. Since acrylic transmits light at a similar wavelength as water, it will make the water appear crystal clear, so swimmers feel like they’re merging with the sky, high above the city streets. The pool itself is pretty awesome, but its most interesting feature is its unusual means of entering and exiting.

UK-based manufacturer Compass Pools want the pool to appear seamless from every direction, which means the perimeter can’t be interrupted by a staircase. The floor of the pool is also transparent so visitors to the five-star hotel directly below can gaze up at the sky through the water. Their solution? A rotating spiral staircase that comes up through the floor on demand.

“We faced some quite major technical challenges to this building, the biggest one being how to actually get into the pool,” says designer and technical director Alex Kemsley. “Normally a simple ladder would suffice, but we didn’t want stairs on the outside of the building or in the pool as it would spoil the view – and obviously you don’t want 600,000 liters of water draining through the building either. The solution is based on the door of a submarine, coupled with a rotating spiral staircase which rises from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out – the absolute cutting edge of swimming pool and building design and a little bit James Bond to boot!”

“Architects often come to us to design roof top infinity pools, but rarely do we get a say in the building design because the pool is usually an afterthought. But on this project, we actually started with the pool design and essentially said, ‘how do we put a building underneath this?’ When we designed the pool, we wanted an uninterrupted view, both above and below the water.”

“Swimming in the SkyPool at the Shard, it’s quite a weird feeling to have helicopters flying past at your level, but this pool takes it a step further. Pop your goggles on and with a 360-degree view of London from 220m up, it really will be something else – but it’s definitely not one for the acrophobic!”

The pool will be heated using waste energy from the building’s air conditioning system, and will also feature a computer-controlled building management system to keep track of water levels and temperatures, while a built-in anemometer monitors wind speeds.

The building is called “Infinity London,” and once partners and contractors are confirmed, it’s set to begin construction in 2020.

Now open on the edge of Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, the Harbor Bath project features a main 150-foot-long pool as well as diving and children’s pools, plus a pair of saunas. Naturally, the water is drawn directly in from the surroundings.

Designed by architects from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) — images by Rasmus Hjortshøj — the complex can support up to 650 bathers at one time. Various pool sizes are elegantly integrating into the tapering form, creating poolside areas as well as swimming and lounging spaces.

Essentially a fake floating island, the structure is further supported by an array of beach volleyball courts, cafes and bars along the adjacent edge of the city.

Future plans call for theaters, hotels, restaurants, shops and more to be developed in the area, making this project a seed or generator of sorts for nearby activity, open all day every day through the summer.

A massive floating plaza juts out of the harbor in Aarhus, Denmark, creating a protected area for bathers to swim and lounge in the sun. The Aarhus Harbor Bath by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) can accommodate up to 650 people at a time and features a diving pool, a shallow children’s pool, two saunas and a 164-foot lap pool. Open only during the summer, the platform is part of a larger effort to revitalize the city’s harbor coastline.

Opening with a splash, literally ? This weekend, we celebrated the official opening of Aarhus Harbor Bath! https://t.co/SMHyZmjthR pic.twitter.com/nCcM3DBt9E

— BIG (@BIG_Architects) July 2, 2018

“This weekend, we celebrated the official opening of Aarhus Harbor Bath with BIG Partner Finn Nørkjær, Mayor of Aarhus Municipality Jacob Bundsgaard, Vice Chairman of Salling Fondene Karin Salling and Councilor of Aarhus Municipality Rabih Azad-Ahmad!” says BIG. “Springboard divers from AGF Udspring took the first plunge off the promenade that rises from the quayside and continues out over the water.”

The bath is five years in the making, offering a “unique oasis” in what used to be an industrial area in Denmark’s second-largest city. BIG is working with Copenhagen-based urban planning group Gehl on a larger framework for the harbor, which will eventually include a beach zone, volleyball courts, cafes and restaurants, a theater, a hotel, shops and supermarkets.

BIG previously completed the Copenhagen Harbor Bath in 2009, a significantly smaller floating platform extending an adjacent park over the water with pools and an urban landscape of cliffs, playgrounds, piers, dry docks and boat ramps.

The ultimate mobile swimming experience, this gutted camper was carved out to create space for a classic blue pool liner, and secured to allow for folks to slosh around between stops (or possibly on the road, depending on local laws).

French artist Benedetto Bufalino removed the roof and got rid of interior furniture, then retrofit the frame to support a pool people — conveniently, the rear ladder for rooftop access now doubles as a means to access to cool water above.

The inventive artist is no stranger to manipulating motor vehicles, artistically flipping them into sculptures, or even turning them into pizza ovens (the pizza car, incidentally, would pair well with the mobile pool at a hot summer party, too).

For that project, he sliced windows of the old ford and removed its technical and internal components, like seats and wheels. a sort of shelf within the car interior was constructed and covered in an all-brick surface that could sustain high heats fueled by burning wood. Grab a slice and take a dip!

Like oversized aquariums made for humans, these glass-walled swimming pools put bathers on display and making splashing in shimmering waters the defining feature of the homes, hotels and apartment blocks they’re built into. Transparent sides or floors allow them to peer into adjacent interiors or look down onto landscapes, blurring the lines between these watery worlds and the spaces around them.

North Bondi by CplusC Architects

A glass-walled lap pool runs along the edge of the North Bondi residence by CplusC Architects, hemmed in on the other side by an envelope-like perforated privacy screen that protects the home from noise and the eyes of neighbors.

Villa Clessidra by LAAV Architects

Villa Clessidra by LAAV Architects is a modern three-story vacation home in the forest for relaxing getaways, sliced right through the middle by a swimming pool occupying a ‘transparent zone’ with glass walls, floors and ceilings so it’s visible from all around.

Farrar Residence by Peter Bohlin and Greg Mottola

A glass-ended infinity pool overlooks an aspen-covered mountainside in Park City, Utah, extending out over a tumbling stream. “The rhythm of columns that flank the pool progressively tightens, creating a false perspective,” says Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architects. “The line between interior and exterior is blurred. The relation to earth, sky and the materials of the house shifts with the changes in light and season on the mountain.”

Spa House by Metropolis Design

Not only do operable glass walls slide all the way open to welcome a lap pool into this home’s interior – as well as the larger connected swimming pool out back – but glass windows in the water connect the pools to the home’s lowest level, creating the feel of being in a submarine.

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