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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the So-no-skinny-dipping? dept.

I first happened upon this marvel of engineering on this recent CNN Travel video story. Digging around the internet, I then found this late April story on CNN.

London's new see-through Sky Pool is first of its kind:

The Sky Pool is a 82-foot (25-meter) transparent swimming pool stretched between the 10th stories of two residential skyscrapers in southwest London's Nine Elms neighborhood -- and it's only open to the apartment complex's lucky residents[*].

[...] The pool was put through extensive strength testing at the Reynolds factory [in Colorado] before making its journey to the UK by road and sea. It was then lifted into place by a 750-tonne mobile crane, supported by a 50-tonne crane.

[...] "After a series of technical drawings and behavioral analyses, the dimensions of the pool were decided," says the Embassy Gardens website."

With sides 200 millimeters [(7.9 inches)] thick and 3.2 meters [(10.5 feet)] deep, and with a bottom 300 millimeters [(11.8 inches)] thick, the 50-tonne acrylic pool will span the 14 meters [46 feet] between the buildings, with steps and filtrations systems sitting either end, and five modes of lighting to add to the feeling of magic."

[...] "Once you swim off, you can look right down. It will be like flying," says Brian Eckersley, director of Eckersley O'Callaghan.

[*] a two-bedroom unit starts at just over £1 million (~$1.4 million).

Entry on Wikipedia.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @11:26AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @11:26AM (#1143092)

    Like a big fish tank?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @11:54AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @11:54AM (#1143098)

    > Like a big fish tank?

    Exactly, tfl says, "aquarium designers Reynolds."

    But perhaps more interesting is "architects Arup Associates". Lest you forget, Arup was responsible for this entertaining disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Bridge,_London [wikipedia.org]

    Londoners nicknamed it the "Wobbly Bridge" after pedestrians experienced an alarming swaying motion on its opening day. The bridge was closed later that day and, after two days of limited access, it was closed again for almost two years so that modifications and repairs could be made to keep the bridge stable and stop the swaying motion. It reopened in February 2002.
    ...
    They concluded that making the bridge stiffer, to move its resonant frequency out of the excitation range, was not feasible as it would greatly change its appearance.[9] Instead, the resonance was controlled by retrofitting 37 viscous fluid dampers to dissipate energy. These include 17 chevron dampers – long V-shaped braces under the deck panels – to control lateral movement, 4 vertical to ground dampers to control lateral and vertical movements, and 16 pier dampers to control lateral and torsional movements.[12][13] Additionally, 52 tuned mass dampers add inertia to control vertical movement. The work took from May 2001 to January 2002 and cost £5M. After a period of testing, the bridge was reopened on 22 February 2002 and has not been subject to significant vibration since. In spite of the successful cure, the affectionate "wobbly bridge" (sometimes "wibbly-wobbly"[citation needed]) epithet remains in common usage among Londoners.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 08 2021, @12:38PM (6 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @12:38PM (#1143105)

      I think the viscous damper solution is a good one, even if they will require maintenance.

      Now, if these buildings get into an oscillation mode during a wind storm, that could be much more exciting than a relatively trivial pedestrian bridge.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:28PM (5 children)

        by looorg (578) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:28PM (#1143111)

        Now I'm starting to wonder about other things such as the one you mention, or if it starts to pour down rain (after all this is England). Will there be a marked splash zone on the ground for the excess water or is there some kind of roof or drainage system that can handle this so there won't be any street splashing?

        • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:35PM (4 children)

          by isostatic (365) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:35PM (#1143114) Journal

          You're asking if it's raining, will people underneath it get wet?

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:44PM (1 child)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:44PM (#1143118) Journal
            There's a difference between rain drops and getting hit with a large blob of water all at once. The latter could cause serious injury.
            • (Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 08 2021, @04:06PM

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @04:06PM (#1143177)

              could cause serious injury.

              Yes, but more likely serious TikTok coverage.

              --
              🌻🌻 [google.com]
          • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:34PM (1 child)

            by looorg (578) on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:34PM (#1143136)

            No I'm wondering if there is a splash zone around or below just from excess water. Not that water is wet or if you get a little rain on you. There is lets say a bit of a difference if there is a little rain a massive rain storm or a bunch of people 14m up in their sky pool decide to jump in to the pool bomb-style or something else that would make the water in the sky pool increase faster then it could be naturally or systematically drained away.

            • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday June 09 2021, @07:19PM

              by isostatic (365) on Wednesday June 09 2021, @07:19PM (#1143648) Journal

              I'd expect the pool overflow would go through normal grey water disposal. I don't see how rain would make a difference