I don’t know if this is a real project or a publicity stunt, but a British pool construction company has hit the viral jackpot today with renderings of a 360-degree infinity pool sitting atop a skyscraper in London, England. I do know that I would freak out in it, though.
First reported by CNN today and spreading faster than a Trump tweet, the “death defying swimming pool”—as the company refers to it—is a 158,500-gallon cast acrylic tank on top of a 55-story building. This material, the company claims, has a refractive index similar to water, so the pool would look like a solid block of water.
That’s all okay, but the part that really makes my head explode is the way you get into it. As you can see in the renderings, there are no stairs to go up and jump in. The pool’s walls are flush with the building’s walls. “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 litres of water draining through the building either,” Alex Kemsley, the pool’s designer, explains in the company’s press release.
So they devised a solution based on the door of a submarine, coupled with a rotating spiral staircase that rises from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out. They haven’t showed renderings of the design, but according to Kemsley, it’s a “a little bit James Bond.”
The company claims that “if all the partners and contractors are confirmed,” construction will begin “as early as 2020.” They say that Infinity London would have a five-star hotel on the top floors, and the pool would be for guests.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
