Palm Sweat-Inducing, Sky Pools Become Latest Luxury Apartment Amenity

• August 21, 2015
• 4 Comments

by Tianna Mañón

A pool in India is suspended 12 stories up.

Twice in one week, the sky pool has made waves.

Residential buildings across the world boast a pool of some sort whether it is on the roof, inside or underground. But this week, new developments in London and India are showing off a new kind of pool — a transparent, glass structure suspended between two buildings.

A London pool claims to be the first of its kind.

In London, the bridge will connect two apartment buildings. The pool will be a little more than three yards, or nine feet, deep and over 15 feet wide.

The Indian version in Surat, Gujarat, which is already under development, is much larger. It connects two residential buildings like the one in London but it’s 60 feet long and 21 feet wide.

There are a couple other notable differences between the two pools besides size; the London pool is essentially a passageway between the two buildings and is just 10 stories up. The Indian counterpart is a pool between two buildings 12 stories up, but it has a deck area for lounging and extends out over the city and past the building’s walls. It will also be completed about a year earlier — in mid-2016 instead of 2017 for the London version.

Due to a serious aversion to heights, the staff at UrbanTurf sees these new pools as a deterrent to renting in these buildings, but to each their own!

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/sky_pools_are_the_latest_trend_amenity/10274

4 Comments

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 6:42 pm on Friday August 21, 2015:
   They'll need non-height-averse cleaners, too, since these pools will require constant cleaning. The structural glazing technology is impressive, though one wonders if the cost is pulling down the rest of the architecture, which in both cases appears rather unremarkable.

1. gakeats@gmail.com said at 7:47 pm on Friday August 21, 2015:
   I think its fantastic. Not sure if the London climate warrants this kind of amenity, but for a luxury hotel or condo in a warm climate, Oh Yeah! My one comment is that somewhere between 5 and 6 feet is deep enough. Love it.

1. Marcy said at 9:42 pm on Friday August 21, 2015:
   I love the pool! I would swim in it in my climbing gear just in case. Seriously, though, I love the green color of the building. In D.C. where glass buildings are so popular, I would like to see some COLOR. Maybe glass buildings that change color? Also, I would like to see bird proof glass!

1. marsh225 said at 7:01 pm on Monday August 24, 2015:
   The London building really symbolizes the city's extreme affordability problems: http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/08/this-swimming-pool-in-the-sky-is-the-ultimate-symbol-of-londons-affordability-crisis/401846/