Showing posts with label Awesome swimming pools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Awesome swimming pools. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

UNUSUAL HOTEL #5: AUSTRIA'S INCREDIBLE AQUA DOME

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While Langenveld, Austria is known for it's cross-country skiing, its here of all places, amid the snow covered mountains that visitors may rather choose to take a swim. Why? Its the location of the 4-star Aqua Dome Wellness Hotel. Here guests can choose from outdoor pools, saunas, baths and steam rooms for ways to relax.

The dome-ceilinged, glass-walled thermal spring hall Ursprung (Origins) is the main indoor area with two pools and a huge waterfall. From there, you swim via two canal pools to the amazing outdoor area, Talfrische (Freshness Valley). With its illuminated structures and steaming vessels it resembles the potion-making lab of a gigantic but friendly sorcerer. The two canals lead to a cone-shaped illuminated tower. From there you proceed to the three bowl pools that look like gigantic martini glasses. Bobbing in one of these eight-metre-high bowls that are 12 to 16 meters in diameter, you can gaze upon the Alps and contemplate your good fortune (via).
The three levitating UFO-shaped outdoor pools are the most unique features of the Hotel. These pools were constructed to give the swimmer a further sense of weightlessness in addition to their natural buoyancy. The three pools consist of the whirl bowl, the sulfur bowl and the brine bowl. The whirl bowl has a whirlpool effect that is ideal for relaxation. In the sulphur bowl, sulphurous water runs into it every 15 minutes and massage benches can be found all around the edges. The brine bowl has a salt content of 5% with underwater music and light effects. The water temperature of the bowls varies between 32° to 36°. 

The thermal indoor pools are just as impressive. Two big pools, filled with 34° and 36° Celsius warm, sulphurous thermal water makes for healthy bathing throughout the whole year. The Thermal indoor area also includes huge windows – that offers panoramic views of the surrounding nature – a waterfall, solaria and heat oasis.

Under the name Gletscherglühen, the Aqua Dome also offers an equally diversified and sophisticated sauna world. The earth sauna, inside a pine wood cabin, is extremely hot and can reach about 90°, however, because its half embedded into the earth, it makes the heat bearable. The other saunas include a glacier cave with ice rain and a stimulating Kneipp trail.

The Aqua Dome offers a separate water world for children and families, the Alpen Arche Noah. This area has two large swimming pools, a water slide, a playroom, an underwater camera and even a cinema. The hotel also has a fitness centre and offers hiking and activity programmes and is renowed for its fine dining and luxurious rooms.

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Visit The Aqua Dome Website for more information.

Monday, March 1, 2010

STUNNING SWIMMING POOLS FROM ALL OVER THE GLOBE

Modern glass outdoor swimming pools

I found this high class glass residential swimming pool picture while surfing the net, view this image on the on the XenGlass website:



This glass bottom pool can be found at the 1000 Beach estate. A cool design but unfortunately it is built overlooking what seems to be a car park.



The Z Oceans Hotel in South Beach, Miami features a pool with triangular glass bottoms. Pretty cool!





Modern indoor swimming pools

The Casa Rota home, designed by Manuel Ocana, has an awesome indoor swimming pool. There is a painting on the pool's floor and when you look down from the second story, you can see the painting in its totality.




The world's largest indoor swimming pool


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The 'Ocean Dome' (pictured above) located in Miyazaki, Japan, is the biggest indoor swimming pool in the world. It’s 300 meters long and 100 meters wide. The temperature inside the pavilion is always 30 degrees and the roof is painted to resemble the skye. It also has an artificial volcano and an artificial waves generation system.

Underground pools, thermal baths & spas

This beautiful underground pool is in the homestead resort in Utah. Sun shine through a central hole in the dome shaped roof, like the Pantheon in Rome.



The Gellért Thermal Baths and Swimming Pool, are a bath complex in Budapest, Hungary, built between 1912 and 1918 in the Art Nouveau style. They were damaged during World War II, but then rebuilt. The Gellért Baths complex includes thermal baths, which are small pools containing water from Gellért hill's mineral hot springs. The water contains calcium, magnesium, hydrocarbonate, alkalis, chloride, sulfate, and fluoride. The complex also includes saunas, plunge pools, children's pool, an effervescent swimming pool and an open-air swimming pool which can create artificial waves every ten minutes.



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wikipedia.org

Hungary is also the home of the
famous spa of Miskolctapolca. The unusual thermal cave bath is unique all around Europe. Besides the natural cave bath there are indoor and outdoor pools, an aqua park, thermal pools and a small pool for children.




Below is an example of a modern take on thermal baths. The architects at the Zurich based Smolenicky & Partners, designed the Tamina Thermal Baths for the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland.


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Another modern design is The Gleichenberg Thermal Bath in Austria

Awesome rooftop swimming pools

Bodrum, Turkey boasts this ultra modern 'Exploded House' designed by GAD architects. GAD created a house made from three separate buildings – a metaphor for a single building that has been 'exploded' into many parts. The roof of the building is covered with what looks like swimming pools but are in fact pools that collect rainwater. The water cascades from the roof of one of the buildings to the other and is then circulated back round, creating a natural cooling system for a hot climate. However the house also has a continious swimming pool set at a slightly lower grade from the house.




This roof top pool in Paris, by Rem Koolhaas OMA is super cool.



The Bali Four Seasons rooftop pool is exceptional. A wooden bridge takes you over a chasm to an infinity pool with the jungle wrapping around the background. The pool floats 50 feet above the ground. The entrance to the hotel is through a slit in the pool to the lobby underneath.



The Joule Hotel is a five-star hotel in Dallas famous for it’s swimming pool that partially hangs off the side of the building – eight stories up.


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A simular roof top swimming pool can be found at the Auckland Hilton Hotel in New Zealand.





Strange shaped pools

This is a unique guitar shaped pool.



Pools with a message

In the photo below of what appears to be a family underwater in a swimming pool is in fact an artistic illusion. The water is not in the pool, it is on top on a glass lid.



A clever ad for HSBC – the bank wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming, so the clever ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather glued an aerial photo of a city’s skyscrapers to the base of a swimming pool creating a view of a submerged cityscape.



The world's deepest pool

At a depth of
over 100 ft deep, the pool at the Nemo 33 recreational diving center in Belgium is the worlds deepest recreational pool.



The world's biggest outdoor swimming pool


The San Alfonso del Mar Swimming Pool in Algarrobo, Chile, is the biggest swimming pool in the world.
The enormous crystalline water pool of San Alfonso del Mar measures over one kilometer in length. It covers eight hectares and holds 250 million liters of water. That's the same size as six thousand 8-meter long swimming pools.


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via worldgreatestsites.com

Cool pre-fab swimming pools

These pools in Brooklyn are made out of old dumpsters.




This public swimming pool in Berlin called The Badeschiff floats on the river Spree and is created from a recycled river cargo container. Since its opening in 2004, it has become a true hot spot in town: deep blue swimming pool, wooden boardwalks, an open-air bar, stunning view and a hell of a lot of trendy people. The small 32m by 8m pool is kept to a comfortable 24 degrees Celsius.


© Kendall Waldman


© Kendall Waldman

A curving translucent shelter and saunas were added recently, making the Badeschiff suitable for winter use.


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Floating swimming pools

The Barge Beach Budapest in Hungary is a sailing island with an open air pool that is situated in the waterways between the Barge river’s edges. The island beach is constructed from three recycled barges and provides residents with a space to bask in the sun.


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These remarkable floating pools by Mobideep is awesome! They are easily installed, is very low maintenance and extremely enjoyable. Definitely a great way to occupy space such as rivers, lagoons and lakes.




Natural Swimming Pools


Clear Water Revival creates some of the best natural pools in the world. A natural swimming pool offers a natural alternative to chemical pools. They are chlorine-free, and harness nature's processes, with microorganisms and plants balancing the water chemistry and maintaining clean, clear and hygienic conditions for natural swimming.