Architecture studio HAL has created a transparent swimming pool bridge between two buildings at the Embassy Gardens development in Battersea, London.
Named Sky Pool, the 25-metre-long swimming pool is made entirely from acrylic panels, allowing swimmers to look directly down to the ground 35 metres below.
HAL designed the pool, described by the studio as the world's first, to be a structure with "a sense of fun" that gives people "a swim like no other".
Architecture studio HAL has created a transparent swimming pool between two buildings
However, the project caused controversy when it was first revealed because the pool is not accessible to the affordable housing residents within the development.
Financial Times architecture critic Edwin Heathcote called the pool "a disaster that?s already happened", while Guardian critic Olly Wainwright tweeted: "A reminder that the affordable housing residents of this development, whose windows look straight onto the pool, are not allowed to access it." The elevated pool connects two residential buildings
"We wanted to produce a swimmable bridge ? a lightweight structure spanning between two buildings with swimmers able to take advantage of fantastic views over London," explained HAL founder Hal Currey.
"It's the transparency, the lightness of touch and the fact that it?s straddling two buildings that makes it unique ? and it captures the imagination, the fact that swimmers can see ...