People can't figure out how you're supposed to get in and out of this stunning rooftop infinity pool with 360-degree views. Here's how it will work.
- Compass Pools is designing an infinity pool that will sit atop a 55-story building in London, providing 360-degree views of the city.
- But many people are confused about how a swimmer would enter and exit the pool.
- Some Twitter onlookers likened the design to an experiment in "The Sims" gone wrong.
- Visit Business Insider for more stories.
Infinity pools are a staple of beachside resorts and high-end hotels - but you probably haven't seen one quite like this. Compass Pools is planning to build a borderless pool at the top of a 55-story London skyscraper providing a 360-degree view of the city skyline.
But there's just one problem. People are confused about how you're supposed to enter and exit the pool.
Compass Pools' website says that swimmers will use a spiral staircase "based on the door of a submarine" that rises from the pool's floor. Alex Kemsley, swimming pool designer and technical director for Compass Pools, told Business Insider sister site INSIDER that the staircase works like "a tube in a tube."
"The first tube is to cut a path through the water and create an airlock," he said. "The second to deliver the staircase up to water level." The company opted not to add stairs to the outside of the building or the pool because it would spoil the view.
He added that the staircase is controlled by a programmable logic controller, which ensures that all locks and valves operate at the correct time.
But that didn't stop onlookers from speculating how swimmers are supposed to get in and out of the pool following the news of its debut.
Many people compared the pool's design to a real-life experiment in the popular life simulator video game "The Sims" gone awry.
Construction plans for the building are scheduled to start in 2020, and the top floors will include a five-star hotel, a spa, apartments, and luxury retail outposts. Other than its mysterious entry and exit mechanism, the pool will feature a clear floor so that swimmers can see the guests below and vice versa and an anemometer to measure the wind speed, ensuring water doesn't spill out to the street below.