Self-cleaning pool will be created in London
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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An international group of designers from Germany and Holland decided to use part of one of the huge buildings in the heart of London to create a place for relaxation with a public pool and at the same time an original art object.
A new design project was named Of Soil and Water ("Earth and Water"). The designers themselves describe their project as a special place for rest and bathing, while the water in the pond will be filtered naturally.
This project was conceived by the studio Rotterdam, Ooze Architects and Slovenian artist Marguerite Portch. According to plans, the art object will act as a public place for recreation, while water purification in the basin will occur not with the help of chemicals, but in a natural way with a wetland flora.
Designers have chosen a building for their art object, located in the new park Lewis Kabit (next to the design school Central Saint Martins, which is under reconstruction).
Now there is a construction site around the park, but when the reconstruction works are over, there will be a large number of buildings around the park. With their new project, a group of designers tried to show that it is likely to use natural, natural methods of cleaning in urban conditions.
Similar methods, when natural materials are used for purification instead of chemicals, are widespread in Australia and Germany. Usually such systems are found in private homes or sanatoriums.
The pool with natural self-cleaning will be divided into three zones: for bathing, filtration and regeneration. In the filtration zone, special algae (both underwater and floating on the surface) will be located, which will purify the water and saturate it with oxygen.
Art object has a fine line between a place for rest and art, so to control the ratio of water volume, the number of filters and plants will be established inflexible overlap, which also helps to monitor the number of bathers. One of the authors of the project notes that the number of bathing in the pool can not be more than 163 people, this figure is slightly less than the designers planned, but it is impossible to make a large reservoir in volume.
The pool in the London Park will rise two meters above the ground, it will be built of stone and brick, the size of 40x10m.
Architect Eva Pflannez noted that the group faced an important task to create a small environment, a living laboratory in which it would be possible to check whether there is the possibility of creating an artificial self-sustaining system that includes only water, land and the human body.
Such a pool can be used throughout the year, but the number of people who want to swim in such a pond will be limited daily, depending on how quickly the plants will cope with water purification.
Around the water's edge, designers plan to plant grass, flowers, shrubs. The environment around the reservoir will change in accordance with the season.