Challenge
Inspired by the Sky Pool at Embassy Gardens in London, the client envisioned a suspended acrylic swimming pool positioned within the courtyard of an existing residence. Bringing that vision to life required overcoming several significant engineering challenges, including designing an elevated freestanding acrylic structure with an approximately 25-foot clear span, integrating it into an existing home, and coordinating the structural, waterproofing, and construction requirements of a highly unconventional design.
Solution
Making this concept structurally feasible required extensive engineering of both the acrylic vessel and its supporting structure. Structural calculations were performed to design the reinforced concrete support structures to carry the substantial dead and live loads of the suspended pool, including the weight of the acrylic and thousands of gallons of water, while also resisting the extreme wind loads required for a coastal South Florida application. Detailed finite element analysis (FEA) was used to evaluate stresses, deflections, and overall panel behavior, resulting in acrylic panels up to 14 inches thick. The acrylic structure, reinforced concrete supports, and foundations were then carefully coordinated and integrated with the existing residence to ensure the system could be successfully constructed and perform reliably over the long term.
