London's sky pool will let the super-rich swim through the air

By James Vincent
Developers in London are building what they claim is the world's first "sky pool" — a 25-meter-long swimming pool suspended 10 stories in the air between two blocks of luxury flats. The transparent pool at Embassy Gardens will be three meters deep with a water depth of 1.2 meters, and will be constructed with the help of aquarium designers using 20-cm-thick glass. The pool will allow residents to swim between the development's roof-top bar, spa, and orangery (a walkway will be available as well), with prices for apartments and penthouses in the complex starting at £602,000 ($942,572).

"My vision for the sky pool 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," said Sean Mulryan, chairman and CEO of the Ballymore Group, the project's developers. "The experience of the pool will be truly unique, it will feel like floating through the air in central London."

Although the sky pool is certainly architecturally striking, the project can also be seen as symbolic of London's housing problems, with developers in the city often promising to build affordable homes in central areas only to focus on luxury apartments instead. Embassy Gardens itself is part of the larger Nine Elms development in southwest London, which is intended to regenerate the inner-city district of Battersea. Instead, say critics, homes in the $23 billion development are being marketed primarily to wealthy buyers in Asia and the Middle East, with locals simply priced out of the market.