Month: April 2018

An aquatic centre in the stunning French Alps

Courchevel, a ski resort in Tarentaise Valley (Savoie), is also an ideal place to practice this quintessential winter sport in a spot in the French Alps where you can enjoy all the fine qualities of water.

In the tiered countryside of a typically Alpine nature, the Aquamotion Aquatic Center has occupied a platform with stunning views over the valley and mountain panorama since 2015, when it was established as an architectural showpiece that with every gesture sought integration with the landscape.

The big challenge for the architects from German studio Auer Weber, with French outfit Studio Arch as the associate team, was to deliver two well-differentiated areas in terms of functionality under a single roof. The areas had to also be separated into two floors. On the one hand, they were to design a leisure zone and on the other a relaxation and rest area. It all had to be housed under one large continuous element that would deliver a fluid use of the facilities and capture the beauty of the surroundings. While the facilities are located half-underground, the large vault appears as a giant shell that emerges from the land and protects the interior. This continuous element, measuring 80 metres wide and 120 metres long, also reflects the light inside and into all the corners. The architects also designed an intermittent series of shells to insert in the vault and provide new views from inside.

The dome soars at some points to up to 17 metres, making this project a major exercise in structural balance which was possible with the partnership with of team Bollinger + Grohmann.  The building becomes a large sculpture of spaces and light. This overhang gesture allows the building to open up and communicate with the Alpine setting while trapping an enormous amount of natural light thanks to the glassed-in facades that enclose the interior space. It is a breath-taking experience to enjoy the water in this aquatic centre with a green blanket around you in summer which turns white in winter.

The indoor facilities include 30 and 100-metre waterslides, a diving pool, a lake, an indoor pool and an outdoor facility. A children’s pool with a colourful seashell greets kids in the heart of the complex. Various complementary services complete this aquatic paradise: a dark cavern with a saltwater pool, a massage centre with a variety of treatments and a space that opens onto the saunas and Turkish baths, as well as a cold-water outdoor pool.

Each corner with a unique and specific design. An underground connection from the aquatic centre to the car park affords maximum guest comfort.

Photos: © Aldo Amoretti, Barcelona, Spain www.aldoamoretti.com

Discover the shark pool in the LEGO House

The LEGO House recently opened in the centre of Billund, Denmark is an amazing life-size construction built using 25 million plastic LEGO bricks in which nothing is what it seems. In total, 21 spaces in the shape of superimposed blocks invite children and adults to explore them through play and their imagination. The house of the Danish toy brand was designed by the BIG firm of architects to showcase the infinite possibilities of LEGO bricks.

In the pool of the LEGO house there is a submarine that has run aground, menacing sharks with their jaws wide open and surf boards that move across the shark-infested waters. “This is what kids do every day with LEGO bricks and this is what we have done in the LEGO House as it stands, thus making Billund closer to becoming the kids’ capital”, explained Bjarke Ingels, the founding partner of the BIG firm of architects.

The building sits on a public playground of 2,000 m2 that is lit up by the cracks between each of the volumes. Blocks and galleries have been arranged on this square that is colour-coded in LEGO’s primary colours to signal the themes staged there. As the team entrusted with the project explained, this means that “finding your way through the exhibitions becomes a journey through the colour spectrum”.

In the LEGO House, a huge multicoloured cascade bursts into the Red zone, devoted to creativity, to form bubbles and foam made of coloured bricks. The underwater world is present throughout the tour, especially in the Yellow zone, designed to explore emotions. Here, fish, octopuses and jellyfish swim among the marine vegetation and a coral reef completely made of LEGO bricks in an enormous aquarium.

At The Cool Pool we love the block scheme! Would you like to find out about another amazing house designed with two impressive longitudinal volumes?

Pictures Iwan Baan

Franck Bohbot’s stunning Paris pools

In Franck Bohbot’s pictures, everything looks set to become a memorable film location: glass lamps shine in his spaces, the floor is recently waxed, natural lighting flows through the outsized windows and the classy ceilings speak to the enormity of architecture and history. His series also feature the most stunning pools in Paris. That’s because, if there’s one thing that fascinates this Parisian-born photographer it’s “water and the way it interacts with people and their built environment”.

The pools shot by Bohbot have mostly covered spaces that seem designed to coincide with the use of their colours: yellow, orange, white, and blue. His Swimming Pool series won the International Photography Award in 2013 and caught the eye of leading professionals in the world of art, fashion, and journalism. Today he documents life in New York, the city where he lives, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times.

La Butte aux Cailles Pool

This pool opened in 1924 and is distinguished by its surprising 55-foot-high vaulted ceiling. It was the first pool in Paris where you could swim outdoors, in 28º C water taken from an artisan well. Following a recent overhaul, this Art Nouveau multicoloured pool has recovered the comprehensive white of its original construction without losing a whit of its charm.

Pailleron Pool

Classified as a historical landmark from the Art Deco period, Pailleron Pool wows visitors with its extensive ceiling that lets the natural light in and the old changing rooms on the top two floors.

Georges-Vallerey Pool

This large pool hosts numerous swimming championships in France and because it is a perfect place to hold sporting events it was proposed as part of Paris’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Pontoise Pool

Pontoise Pool is the ideal choice for people after a night-time dip. You can swim to classical music until nearly midnight in this unique construction which first opened in 1933 and that is lit by tenuous lights when it starts to get dark

We invite you to discover Maria Svarbova’s photos of stunning vintage pools. Another prized photographer who captures bathers just before they take a dip in colored Soviet-style pools! 

Pictures: Franck Bohbot

Pool Winterising in 5 Steps

Did you know you should only empty a pool once every five years? However, when winter comes around, many pool owners and maintenance staff still choose to remove all the water. This action is not only fairly unsustainable, it can also be very pricey.

There are better ways to keep a pool looking clean and free of insects and algae during the winter months. One of the simplest is to put it into winterising, which consists of keeping the water in good condition during winter and reusing it the next season.

This system entails a considerable saving in both water and money and, if there is frost, prevents damage to the pool such as cracks and holes. Below we go over the five fundamental steps to successfully putting a pool into winterising

1. Give the bottom and sides of the pool a thorough cleanse, along with the pump pre-filter and skimmer valves.

2. Check the pH level of the pool water and adjust it to between 7.2 and 7.4. You can use pH Minor or pH Plus to regulate the level of alkalinity.

3. Apply a shock treatment with triple-action chlorine tablets. It is a good idea to keep the filter running for around 6 hours to guarantee correct product distribution.

4. The next day, clean the filter with an extra-strong dose of descaler.

5. Finally, add a winter guard and make sure it is well distributed across the whole of the pool.

For safety reasons and to ensure the pool doesn’t fill with leaves and dirt, during winterising it is highly recommendable to use a cover or canvas. The use of floating covers in domestic pools during periods when the pool is not in use can save up to 65% on maintenance costs (cleaning, filtering) and water loss from evaporation.

Want to go that one step further? Here are some more handy tips!

To put a pool into winterising, the water temperature should be under 15ºC.

To prevent the pool from overflowing during heavy rain, it is a good idea to lower the water level to below the level of the skimmers.

In places with a frost risk, to stop the water from freezing you can use elements that float on the water