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Design Dilemma: Cool Pools

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Wanna take a dip? In the dog days of summer, we’ve been checking out cool pools from around the web.

Above, check out the pool at the Kanazawa Art Museum in Japan. It’s a permanent installation created by Studio Sanaa. You can read more about them on Design Boom.  Check out another view below:

How is it done? Well, we hate to give away secrets, but it involves a sheet of glass placed over a pool opening. When water is poured over the glass,  you get the cool underwater effect!

Below, this rooftop pool has both the feeling of a pool and a fish tank.

Here’s what it looks like from below. Not only can you see passersby on the street, but they can see you while you swim your laps.

Also on the roof — another cool pool by Rem Koolhaas on the outskirts of Paris:

The client wanted a glass house with a swimming pool on the roof and two separate “apartments” – one for the parents, the other for the daughter. They also wanted a panoramic view – from their swimming pool.. The pool joins the house which is conceived as a glass pavilion with two hovering, perpendicular apartments.

For those who like a fish-tank feel, here’s a pool from La Purificadora hotel in Puebla, Mexico:

The hotel was built in a former 19th-century water purifying center. So purity is the guiding principle of the hotel’s design as executed by renowned architects Ricardo Legorreta and his son Victor.

Finally, this long L-shaped pool caught our eye for its promise of long, uninterrupted laps. The lighting, the microtiles and the red wall behind the brilliant blue pool provide delicious eye candy.