Even in the scorching summer heat, few people would go for a nice, cooling swim in New York’s notoriously dirty East River. But now that’s about to change with PlayLab's + Pool, a floating swimming pool.
+ Pool started with a simple goal: instead of trying to clean the entire river, what if you started by cleaning just a small piece of it? And what if you could change how New Yorkers see their rivers, just by giving them a chance to swim in it?
The crowd-funded New York City public pool, created by a group of young designers known as PlayLab, is designed to filter the very river that it floats in through the walls of the swimming pool, making it possible for New Yorkers to swim in clean river water for the first time in 100 years.
The layered filtration system incrementally removes bacteria and contaminants to ensure nothing but clean, swimmable water – no chemicals, no additives, just natural river water.
The pool will clean up about 1893 kilolitres of river water every day. In doing so, + Pool will make a measurable contribution to the rivers of New York City.
Furthermore, + Pool is designed for all types of swimmers, bathers and hanger-outers, which is why it’s designed as four pools in one: a kids’ pool, sports pool, lap pool and lounge pool. Each can be used independently, combined to form an Olympic-length pool. Its simple and iconic shape will mark the return to clean rivers in New York City.
+ Pool was developed two years ago and has been selected as a finalist in the Work category of the INDEX: Award 2013.
