World's first 'sky pool' is 10 stories up, completely see-through, utterly stomach-churning
Our main question is: Who will have the nerve to swim in it?
At Embassy Gardens, a 2,000-unit luxury complex next to the new U.S. Embassy in London's Nine Elms district, residents will be able to swim from one building to another in a clear swimming pool bridging the main entrance, 10 stories in the air.
The water will be about 4 feet deep; the pool itself will be 90 feet long by 19 feet wide by almost 10 feet deep, according to Homes & Property in the U.K.., built of 8-inch-thick sheets of glass.
(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of the "sky pool" and Embassy Gardens.)
One real estate agent to the rich doesn't think it's such a hot idea. In fact, he tells the Guardian it's "genuinely crackers":
“It’s not easy to say for sure what the extras like pools, tennis courts and home cinemas add to a home, but for the first time I can honestly say that whilst my admiration for the architect is close to reverence this absurd addition must surely be the biggest mistake I have ever come across.”
The agent, Henry Pryor, wondered, "Are there enough exhibitionists to fill it?"
The fellow who dreamed up the pool, developer Sean Mulryan, said in a news release that his vision "stemmed from a desire to push the boundaries in the capability of construction and engineering. I wanted to do something that had never been done before. The experience of the pool will be truly unique, it will feel like floating through the air in central London."
The Guardian's critic Oliver Wainwright — whom Treehugger calls the King of Architectural Snark — pours derision on the scheme:
"The £1bn Embassy Gardens scheme will be London’s most secure residential zone, its mighty blocks of 2,000 luxury flats huddled in a fortified arc around the new US Embassy.
"Views of the embassy from the pool are trumpeted as a key selling point. But it is a curious decision to suspend an all-glass bridge beside a building that believes itself to be at such risk of a terror attack that it cowers behind a 30-metre-deep bomb-blast zone.
"Having an aerial aquarium of oligarchs next door will surely only add to the temptation for any budding bomb enthusiasts. Not that the owners will ever be around to use it: it’s likely to turn a similar shade to the sludgy green tiles of the buildings that support it, making it the world’s first slimy pond in the sky."
Units at Embassy Gardens start at about $1 million. The first residences are to be completed in 2017, the pool in 2018.
Would you swim there? Tell us in the comments.
Click here or on an image for a slideshow of London's stomach-churning "sky pool."
Also on Yahoo Homes:
• 'Silence of the Lambs' house where Buffalo Bill groomed victims is for sale at $300K (25 photos, 2 videos)
• Man's drunken boast leads to DIY Skysphere on parents' farm (21 photos)
• Public housing family makes half a million a year, HUD's OK with that
