Infinity Swimming Pools: Creative Pools with Only 3 Walls

Pools in the shape of a square, or a bean or rectangle; pools that are round or ovoid. They all have one thing in common besides the water they hold; a continuous wall that goes all the way around. This wall is very important; it holds the water in. It is a natural idea. It is a safe idea. It is an idea that does not change. Or does it?

Let me introduce you to a popular trend among the wealthy; creative luxury pools that only have three walls.

They are known by three names: infinity edge, negative edge, and vanishing edge. All three names are used to refer to the unique and striking feature of an edge that is not there.

Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a river; in one direction the river retreats towards its source, but in the other direction, the river is spilling over the edge of a cliff. Across the waterfall, you see open sky. If you peer over the edge, you see the water tumbling down towards the ground far, far away. If you can forget for a moment that you are standing at the edge of this waterfall, you could say that the spectacle is quite breathtakingly beautiful.

Bringing the splendor of the above experience straight to you is the idea behind these luxury pool designs, although at a much more manageable scale.

The design is fairly straight forward. It is just a pool with one side trimmed down to allow water to cascade over it and into a reservoir on the other side and out of sight. The environment surrounding the creative pool is very important; these pools have been constructed on the roof tops of office structures, on the edges of cliff faces that homes are built into, and on the edges of wide beaches.

Of all the creative and luxurious things a person can do to a home, the creative pool design of infinity edge, negative edge, or vanishing edge is very possibly the most dramatic; with a price tag to match. Imagine what the cost of a normal sized middle-class pool would run, then add several thousand dollars; that does not take into account the other aesthetic details such as the architectural design, the height and width of the "water fall", or the catch basin on the other side and materials. One of these creative luxury pools can quickly add up to over $100,000.

While the wealthy may be able to drop that kind of cash on such a beautiful aesthetic detail, the rest of us will have to be content to just look at the pictures online.