The concept of a floating pool filled with filtered water from the East River in New York City has attracted the interest of global consulting firm, Arup which is donating time and resources for a feasibility study. The idea, conceived by architect Dong-Ping Wong, and designers Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeffrey Franklin, is to actually use the river water, continually filtered.
A floating pool filled with filtered water from the East River in Manhattan?
A far-fetched concept, perhaps, but one that just may work. The engineering challenge has attracted the interest of global consulting firm, Arup which is donating resources to make it happen.
The idea is not just to design and construct a floating swimming pool in New York’s notorious East River, but to actually use the river water, continually filtered.
The project’s proponents hope it could be up and running by next year.
It was conceived by New York architect Dong-Ping Wong, and designers Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeffrey Franklin.
Field tests are about to begin for the triple-membrane filtration system which will keep solids and bacteria out of the pool and make it safe for swimmers.
The reaction to the idea has been overwhelming, said Wong.
“We just wanted to come up with something innovative last summer,” said Wong. “We put it out there blind – we didn’t even know about the other floating pools.”
The project is taking existing water-treatment technology and reconfiguring it, he says.
There are other challenges, too.
“Getting permits from the city — even though they’ve been positive — and getting operating funds because pools aren’t cheap and they lose money,” he said.
One of the models they are exploring is corporate sponsorship, which seems the most likely route at this stage.
The idea has fired the imaginations of thousands of people who have contributed micro-payments — $1, $5, $100 and so on — via the Kickstarter website. They’re in reach of the US$25,000 needed to fund field models of the membrane-filter system which will help indicate which configuration works best and will be better suited for the polluted East River environment.
The project has also caught the attention of global consulting engineering giant Arup’s New York office which is donating time and resources for a feasibility study.
“It’s part of Arup’s culture to work with young architects,” said engineer Nancy Choi, who is managing details of firm’s involvement. “Our boss read about it in a blog and thought it would be a cool project for us to work on.”
The challenge is real and the learning could be invaluable, said Choi, because many large cities around the world are looking to reclaim their waterfronts.
Indeed, Arup’s Toronto office is involved in redesigning Toronto’s waterfront.
“We’re still at the very beginning stages,” said Choi, a wastewater specialist, noting the concept is feasible but will need some serious engineering.
Floating swimming pools in large bodies of natural water aren’t entirely new. There’s one in the Bronx modelled on another in Zurich, Switzerland and there are also others in Berlin and Paris.
Those pools, however, are self-contained — more like barges than pools that interact with the body of water that surrounds them. Still, they are hugely popular with swimmers who like the proximity to the waterfront.
The Plus Pool is a 9,000-square-foot pool in four modules whose perimeter forms a “plus” sign.
It could be configured as a children’s pool with a shallow bottom on one side and an adult recreational pool and lap pool on the other sides or turned into an Olympic-sized race pool.
The idea is to use a triple-wall membrane filter, with successively smaller layers.
Choi says there’s been some interest from other water-treatment technology firms to get on board since the project could be a marketable case study and a good source of publicity.
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