You're strolling through Linear Park in London when a friend says, "Hey, check out that pool!"
You look to the right. You look to the left. You turn a complete circle. Seeing nothing, you shrug. She points straight up.
And there, overhead, is a massive transparent swimming pool bridging the gap between two 10-storey apartment buildings. That's what's in the plans for a committed luxury apartment project called Embassy Gardens in the suburb of Nine Elms near the Thames.
The architectural rendering of the pool shown above depicts the pool from Linear Park, with a swimmer mid-stroke, staring down through the glass bottom at the street below. Imagine that moment.
Plans for the pool call for a vessel 90 feet in length, 19 feet in width and nearly 10 feet in depth. Do a little math and you are left with 17,100 cubic feet of water (that's 127,916 gallons weighing 533 tons), all suspended 115 feet in the air.
The transparent glass shell, at a thickness of 8 inches, is regarded as more than sufficient to bear the load. Just don't tap on it.
