People are literally obsessed with records. The highest mountain, the longest bridge, the heaviest nugget, the largest diamond... Today the subject of our article will be the pool. This non-trivial structure is located in the British capital and allows you to approach differently to the intersection of water obstacles in London. If before that it was possible to cross the Thames on a bridge or in a boat or go down to the subway, now all the same, albeit in a smaller volume, can be done at a height of 12 floors above the ground - overcoming a twenty-five-meter pool.
The thing is that it is installed between the buildings of the newest residential complex, allowing guests to go to friends. Or rather, swim!
The unparalleled facility opened in the last decade of May this year in a fashionable residential complex in south-west London. Called the "Embassy Gardens",it is located in the "Nine Elms" quarter, where the French regular park has long been located, in which kings from the Stuart dynasty received foreign diplomatic representatives.
The architectural and design engineering team that designed the pool and the complex has in the past been noted for such bright projects as the Sydney Opera House building.
The body of the engineering structure is made of alloy steel, the bottom and wall are made of monolithic acrylic, moreover, twenty centimeters thick (the bottom is another ten centimeters thicker). The total length is 26 meters, moreover, three meters are mounted on the roofs of houses and are vats with steps, and directly "on the hills" the pool rests for twenty meters.
It is located on the 11th floor - the roof. Both roofs are multifunctional recreation areas for residents, equipped with a bar, one has a restaurant and a sand-covered "beach area" (both the first and the second are equipped with sun loungers). Equipped with variable lighting, changing shade depending on external conditions.
With a certain courage, you can dive to the bottom and look at the street from a bird's eye view. On both sides, the pool is equipped with filtration systems.
In the bowl of 149,000 liters of water, and the total weight reaches two hundred tons - five dozen fall on the bowl. The design has a three-meter depth, but the water is filled with two-fifths (technically it will withstand full filling, but the board is necessary for safety, otherwise a hapless diver or swimmer risks going on a date with the pavement).
To install this colossus in place, a crane with a carrying capacity of 750 tons was required, and another - sixty-ton - was on safety.
The pool was manufactured in the United States, the city of Springfield, Colorado, at a plant that produces "lanterns" of the cockpits of strategic B-2 bombers with reduced radio visibility. Before sending the product to the customer, the manufacturer conducted more than fifty strength tests. Acrylic megatase was even blown in a wind tunnel, and only after making sure of one hundred percent reliability, sent to the UK. For transportation to the port in Virginia, a special tractor was used, after which it was loaded onto the ship.
Ironically, the complex where this amazing artifact was installed is within walking distance of the North American embassy and was rumored to have been ordered by its economic department: it was assumed that the apartments on the ninth floor would be used to accommodate invited guests, and the technical rooms under the roof were rumored to be used to house radio equipment and servers belonging to the embassy.
Whether this is true or not is difficult to say now. It is known that the diplomatic mission does not use the premises.
Access to the pool, which has become an attraction for the general public, is provided to residents renting apartments in buildings (the price reaches 9 thousand pounds per month and starts from two and a half, which is equivalent to 200-900 thousand rubles); acquisition of ownership will result in one and a half million - which is understandable, to live in the embassy quarter and surrounded by historical monuments is prestigious, this is a high status.
