Glass Struct. Eng.
(2021) 6:353–373
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-021-00158-6
PROJECTS & CASE STUDIES PAPER
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Graham Coult
Received: 6 April 2021 / Accepted: 12 July 2021 / Published online: 15 September 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Abstract The Sky Pool in Nine Elms, London, is
the world’s first fully transparent, suspended swim-
ming pool—allowing residents to swim 15 m between
two buildings 10 floors up—and will become a land-
mark and an unprecedented feat of architecture for the
capital. The Sky Pool was conceived as a bold, inno-
vative and thrilling unique selling point for Embassy
Gardens, one of the leading riverside development in
zone 1 central London that provides 1500 new homes,
world-class amenities, 40,160 m 2 of office space across
two buildings and 12,100 m2 of retail spaces and cafes,
bars and restaurants. Phase 1 and Phase 3 of Embassy
Gardens was delivered by Ballymore, and phase two
by a Joint Venture between Ballymore and EcoWorld.
Wrapped around the new U.S. Embassy, the 8ha river-
side neighbourhood has a prominent location in one
of Europe’s most significant regeneration projects that
covers the 227 ha Greater London Authority’s Vaux-
hall Nine Elms Battersea investment opportunity area,
Nine Elms London (Development sites, 2021) bring-
ing in 20,000 new homes (Fig. 1). The original concept
from the architect, Arup Associates, was to use glass
for its construction, however, initial studies showed that
the structural glass was not the most efficient material
choice. The shortcomings on strength were particularly
exacerbated by the requirement of joining glass pan-
els together which provided areas of increased stress.
G. Coult (B)
Eckersley O’Callaghan Ltd, London, UK
e-mail: graham@eocengineers.com
URL: www.eocengineers.com
Furthermore, the possibility of damage and expen-
sive replacement brought the idea of using PMMA
(polymethyl methacrylate), commonly referred to as
Acrylic for the project. The use of casting PMMA in
such large sizes presented significant construction chal-
lenges, including having to build an entirely new build-
ing to fabricate the structure, conceive of new ways to
fabricate and bond the panels and to enhance already
tight quality control. The design included the struc-
tural considerations of the pool being supported by
two independent buildings which could sway and settle
independently and to control and adapt to the issues of
differential thermal expansion.
Keywords PMMA · Polymethylmethacrylate ·
Swimming-pool · Bridge
1 Introduction
The Sky Pool in Battersea, London is the world’s first
fully transparent, suspended swimming pool (Figs. 1,
2).
It is a triumph of engineering perseverance and
determination. From conception to completion, the 25
m long pool suspended between two buildings 10 floors
up, has pushed its designers and fabricators to think dif-
ferently, solve challenges never seen before and push
the boundaries of what is possible. The effect is grav-
ity defying. Such is the transparency of the pool, from
the ground looking up, swimmers appear to be sus-
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354 G. Coult

Fig. 1 Nine Elms development plan—credit: Nine Elms London

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The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 2 Completed project.
Credit: Jason Hawkes
Fig. 3 Barton swing aqueduct
pended in a rectangular block of water floating in mid-
air, flanked between the two adjacent buildings.
To achieve this, the central 15 m long, free spanning
section of the pool is fabricated from two side wall
panels of cast PMMA 178 mm thick, which are then
bonded to a 356 mm thick, 5 m wide base panel. This
is then supported by isolated steel ‘tubs’, embedded in
each building on either side.
First concept options focused on using structural
glass to span between the buildings. However ini-
tial design studies showed that the glass wall panels
were becoming increasingly thick, and the base panels
and beams were becoming too visually dominant; the
desired overall transparency could not be achieved.
This meant that the attention shifted to using PMMA
instead. Having already been used in aquaria around the
355
world to withstand substantial water pressures, it was
an obvious alternative, providing both the structural
performance and the aesthetic minimalism required.
But the challenge remained that no structure on the
scale of the Sky Pool had ever been built using it.
2 History of development
The initial idea of the transparent pool was born before
Eckersley O’Callaghan’s engagement. The Architect
noted that the Client brief for a 25 m long pool at level
10 would have uncomfortably dominated the relatively
small floor plate available for residents. The idea for
an aqueduct like bridge was a result of this limitation
(Fig. 5).
This recalled the magnificent Barton swing aque-
duct (Fig. 3) which was designed by Sir Edward Leader
Williams and built by Andrew Handyside and Cobe-
ing completed in 1894. The aqueduct option was to be
modernised by the inclusion of glass panels.
While the concept of the pool spanning between the
buildings was well received by Client, the transparency
afforded by the openings of glass was not considered
sufficient, and so the Client requested that the pool
should be entirely transparent (Fig. 4).
The initial architectural brief could not have been
simpler from an engineering point of view: create a
pool structure as transparent as possible. With the dis-
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356 G. Coult

Fig. 4 Architects rendering

Fig. 5 Level 10 floor plan showing dimension at concept

tance between the buildings being 15 m, the pool ‘only’ Fig. 15. This area was then also used to hide the pool
needed to be transparent over this distance with the 5 m services such as heating, filtering, and pool cover (Fig.
on either side were supported by the buildings taking 5).
on a more standard construction of a stainless-steel tub

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The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 6 Level 9 floor plan showing supports between pool and building frame
Fig. 7 Glass option panel layout
The immediate concerns for the supporting of the
pool were principally the two buildings’ movements.
These movements were out of our control, the build-
ing frame having been designed and now frozen. While
providing accommodation of the lateral sway between
the two towers would be possible by articulating the
supports with sliding bearings (Fig. 6), the differential
vertical displacements from building settlement were
more complicated to accommodate.
With the concept of stainless-steel tub abutments
and a simply supported trough structure spanning in
between, thoughts turned to the arrangement of glass
beams and panels that were required.
The glass could be supplied at the required length
of 15 m, but the width of the glass was limited to 3.2
m. This was a critical dimension for glass side wall as
it determined the structural depth. The base of the pool
would need to be split into smaller panels, given its
overall 5 m width. Different module sizes from 1.5 to
3 m were considered, with the free edges being picked
357
up by secondary glass beams spanning between the pri-
mary walls (Fig. 7).
As the depth of water was 1.2 m, the load exerted by
the water was approximately 12 kN/m2 , a considerable
load when compared to the aim of maximum trans-
parency. The glass floors and tall facades that we had
designed previously had glass panel thicknesses of up
to 70 mm and it was clear that even when using super
low-iron glass, the colour of the panel was significant
at these larger thicknesses.
Moreover, for previously designed perpendicularly
loaded panels, such as floor panels or treads, the pro-
portions of self-weight to imposed load were typically
a maximum of 1:1—the ratio for the pool was approx-
imately 1:3. More significantly still, the imposed load
of water was essentially a permanent load. This limited
the composite stiffness the interlayer could provide.
There was also some debate about the choice of tem-
pering for the wall glass. While the fully toughened
glass would provide a higher load capacity on a weight
basis, factors such as possible nickel sulphide failure
(where due to the presence of nickel sulphide particles
that increase in size over time, a spontaneous fracture
occurs) (Karlsson 2017), accidental damage, facture
pattern and the consequence of a k2 mode shear fail-
ure [this is a glass ply failure in the body of the glass
parallel to the surface that can split panels—(Coult and
Overend 2019)]. This led to the conclusion that heat
strengthened would be the most advantageous temper-
ing choice balancing strength and resilience.
Simple beam bending calcs showed that the glass
would need to be impractically thick. Holes towards the
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Fig. 8 Glass option panel layout
Table 1 Refractive index of transparent materials
Material Index of refraction
Water 1.37
PMMA 1.49
Glass 1.58
lower edge of the wall panels were required to accom-
modate fittings. These would then transfer the vertical
load from the floor panel and provide rotational stabil-
ity to the wall panel. But the loads exceeded that which
could be consider a bonded structural silicone or other
adhesive fitting. With the requirement of the holes, the
stress concentrations in the surrounding glass would
have required a further increase in glass wall thick-
ness. Figure 8 shows initial concept models to check
the hand calculated stress concentrations. The approx-
imate magnification factor is 2.75 for this loading case.
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G. Coult
Of secondary consideration was the colour of the
glass panel. At these thicknesses and number of plies,
while it was possible to manufacture them, the clarity
of the panel would have been heavily compromised.
The colour and transparency were expected to seriously
detract from the initial concept. This project brief could
not be met in structural glass.
3 Using acrylic
PMMA was first used as a structural material in WW2
for aircraft canopies, and periscopes, but its use has
become common place in aquaria. The reason it is par-
ticularly well suited to its use in aquaria is down to its
refractive index being much closer in value to that of
water than glass Table 1. This index means that the light
will bend less as it transitions from one material to the
other meaning less distortion to the viewer, especially
for thicker sections. This is particularly important as
the panels in aquaria can be 300 mm thick or more.
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life 359

Fig. 9 Modified Ashby chart, original source “Nicoguaro, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia
Commons”

Table 2 Cast PMMA mechanical properties

R-Casl Physical properities
Property mechanical ASTM method US customary units Average value Metric units Average value

Specfic gravity ASTM-D6792 – 1.19 – –

Tensile strength ASTM-D638 Psi 10,800 kg/cm2 759
Tensile modulus ASTM-D638 Psi 450,000 kg/cm2 31 × 103
Tensile elongation ASTM-D638 % 4.0 – –
Flexural strength ASTM-D790 Psi 16,000 kg/cm2 1,125
Compression strength ASTM-D695 Psi 17,500 kg/cm2 1,230
Shear strength ASTM-D732 Psi 10,000 kg/cm2 703
IZOD impact strength, notched @1/8 ASTM-D256 ft-lbs/inch 0.414 J/m 22.1
Impact strength, Notched (Charpy Method) ASTM-D256 lbf∗ in/in 2.1 kgf∗ cm/cm 0.4
Impact strength, Unnotched (Charpy Method) ASTM-D256 lbf∗ in/in 107 kgf∗ cm/cm 20

There are however drawbacks of the of the material 4 The design

when compared to glass including principally low sur-
face toughness and low strength. The shape and size
of the pool was also going to provide challenges. But
to design a transparent pool of these dimension, this
was the leading material for the structural and aesthetic
application.
The design process began by understanding how
the building movements could be accommodated—
providing global stability to the pool structure while
allowing any other extraneous movements to take
place. In essence, the aim was to minimise the work
that the PMMA had to do. PMMA is a relatively weak

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360 G. Coult

Differential lateral movement:

Both ends rotate about the bearing marked

as a circle in the diagram. Note: A04
central bearing allows for extension.

Differential Longitudinal movement:

As A05 bearing side is the fixed end, all

axial extension/movement is on A04 side

Fig. 10 Planar movements from sway

material when compared to other structural materials,
as shown in Fig. 9, so reducing performance require-
ments to only what was necessary would lead to a more
efficient design. The full suite of mechanical informa-
tion is shown in Table 2.
The building movements are accommodated on plan
by sliding bearings with differing releases. In the four
corners of each tub, a bearing allows movement in both
axes on plan. The lateral stability loads for the pool are
transferred to the building structure via a pin bearing
on Block A05 and a longitudinal sliding bearing on
the western Block A04 (Fig. 10). The vertical differen-
tial movement from settlement or otherwise was more
complicated to resolve.
The predicted movements were discussed with
structural engineer for the superstructure, Walsh. Its
engineers confirmed that as the pool was due to be
installed towards the end of the construction period,
Table 3 Schematic permanent loads
Item Load (kN)
Water 1500
PMMA 500
Steel tubs 65
the predominant part of vertical displacement would
have taken place so only a minor movement needed to
be accommodated. This was to be dealt with, by local
hinging at the junction between the PMMA and the
tubs (Fig. 11). The expected angular change from set-
tlement was 0.0013 deg so this small change would be
accommodated by the elasticity of the bearing materi-
als between the acrylic and the stainless steel. The plan
for the design intent is shown in Fig. 12.

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The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 11 Vertical differential
movement
Fig. 12 Conceptual design
A key part to minimising risk during the design
period was to identify specialist fabricators with the
required expertise and approach. Casting the search
across Europe, and all the way to Australia, few fabri-
cators possessed the portfolio that would suggest they
361
were suited to such a project. A key factor was that
the panels were preferred to be cast at full thickness.
While there were fabricators that could provide the pan-
els built from multiple thinner sheets bonded together,
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362
Fig. 13 Aqua Planet Yeosu
Korea. Credit: Reynolds
Polymer Technology
Fig. 14 Long-term loading in PMMA
it was decided that minimising the total amount of bond
in the structure, further mitigated the risk of defects.
The PMMA fabricator Reynolds Polymer Technol-
ogy Inc was the one company that met the brief. Based
in Grand Junction in Colorado, USA, it possesses a
portfolio of relevant projects and had developed custom
resin and bonding techniques that rendered any joints
almost invisible to the naked eye. The Aqua Planet
Yeousu in South Korea was one such example (Fig. 13).
Specializing in highly engineered PMMA projects, the
engineering team could help provide early design input
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G. Coult
and complete design of this unique assembly from the
PMMA perspective.
No relevant standards existed for the design of
PMMA in the UK. Therefore, for the purposes of this
design the stresses for PMMA were based on PVHO
Safety Standard for Pressure Vessel for Human Occu-
pancy (United States Naval Ocean Systems Center
n.d.); and data extracted from the PMMA technical
manual by the fabricator.
One significant characteristic of PMMA concerns
the phenomenon of crazing. Crazing is the formation
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 15 Initial stainless steel tub model
of small cracks (in the range of 0.1–0.25 µ (Wolock
1957) in the surface of the PMMA when principle ten-
sile stresses exceed a specific value for a sustained
period. Crazing occurs at stresses well below failure,
so the acceptable stress levels and design were modi-
fied to mitigate this material phenomena. The PVHO
code specifies if maximum flexural stresses are main-
tained below 810psi for a period of 10 years then craz-
ing will not be perceivable. If crazing were to develop,
the surface can be polished, and surface finish restored
without any loss to the structural performance. There-
fore, a long-term maximum flexural stress of 800psi
was adopted, which equates to approximately 5.5 MPa.
As the onset of crazing is an aesthetic consider-
ation and does not affect the short -term structural
performance, the Eurocode serviceability limit state
load combination were considered most appropriate.
Fig. 16 Tendon concept
363
Table 4 Thermal expansion values
Material Thermal expansion (◦ C)
Stainless steel 15.9 × 10−6
PMMA 84.6 × 10−6 (@38 ◦ C )
Fig. 17 Spring stack
In addition, only long term/permanent loads are con-
sidered relevant for the development of crazing.
The short-term loading is also an important consid-
eration as the complexity of thermal loading character-
istics had to be considered. These local stresses proved
to be significant in the design.
Stresses under short term loads need to be checked
against an allowable principle tensile stress. A design
tensile stress of 20.7 MPa (3000psi), was quoted by the
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364
Fig. 18 Drawing of spring
stack
Fig. 19 Temperature profile effects
fabricator which complied with a material safety factor
of 3.0 based on the PVHO minimum tensile stress level
of 62.0 MPa (9000psi). The average results achieved
by the fabricator was higher at 75.9 MPa (10,800psi)
(Table 2). Similarly, a compressive strength of 34.3
MPa was based on a safety factor of 3 compared to
PVHO minimum compressive strength of 103 MPa.
Design to PVHO is carried out using an allow-
able stress approach. However, for the purposes of
this design the previously referenced design stress of
20.7 MPa was used in combination with ULS loads
to Eurocodes BS EN 1991, 1993 (BSi 2002). This
approach was adopted for the following reasons:
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G. Coult
– Eurocodes offered an appropriate means of calcu-
lating wind and thermal loads for the given envi-
ronment
– The approach taken was conservative, as uncertain-
ties in loading are likely to have been considered
within the global factor of safety of 3.0 for the
allowable stress approach
– Adopting this approach was not likely to lead to
inefficient design as it was most likely be governed
by crazing.
The initial conceptual model (Fig. 14) verifying the
estimation of the thicknesses is shown below and con-
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 20 Stress plot from thermal loading
firmed that a base thickness of 300 mm and a wall
thickness of 250 mm was comfortably within limits.
Once the global principles of stability, and basic
structural performance had been worked out, consid-
eration turned to how the parts would be connected.
It is worth noting that at the low design stress and the
thick walls, the PMMA was not subject to second order
buckling. At this stage it was important to understand
the effect of friction from the bearings and how this
force could be transferred from the steel to the PMMA.
With a total vertical load of 2065 kN, the friction could
be potentially carried by the PMMA (Table 3). The BS
EN 1337-2:2004 (BSi 2004) was used to assess this
condition.
The initial intention was to fix the stainless-steel tubs
Fig. 15 to the pool with bolts or shear key type con-
nectors, similar to the detailing of glass. But loads on
these fittings and the stress concentration in the PMMA
meant that this would have been impractical based on
the 54 kN load. This was advised against by the fabri-
cator.
To solve this, it was decided to have two steel rods
that pulled the end tubs onto the PMMA (Fig. 16).
These rods provided permanent compression across the
three pool units—tub, PMMA, tub-so they act as one.
Situated underneath the pool, the rods would provide a
permanent compressive load on the PMMA, ensuring
that the joint between the PMMA and the tubes would
not be subjected to tensile loads.
This simple solution would need to be further con-
sidered as the structure has two dissimilar materials
365
between the same defined points. The PMMA pool and
the steel tendon both being fixed to the tubs had a ther-
mal expansion coefficient that differed by a factor of 5.
The effects and mitigation of thermal expansions were
necessary to prevent a reduction in the tension force in
the rods or an increase in compression on the PMMA,
either of which, could cause significant issues.
This problem is akin to cable wall facades (a type of
façade where flat tensioned cables support glass pan-
els), where the cable must maintain a certain range of
pre-load when dealing with thermal and/or building
frame deflections.
In the case of the pool, the relative magnitude of
these movement dimensions was proportionally higher.
While the overall extension of the pool system was
accommodated by the axial sliding of the bearings, it
was the internal system stresses and displacements that
needed to be understood.
5 Internal stresses and displacements
Thermal loads were calculated in accordance with the
BS EN 1991-1-5 Thermal Actions (BSi 2003) The max-
imum and minimum temperatures for London for a
return period of 60 years are − 10.3 °C, 35.4 °C respec-
tively. These extreme conditions are assumed for short-
term load cases only. For long-term load cases the aver-
age air temperature has been based on data from the Met
Office of 9.6 °C which represents the mean temperature
from 1910 to 2015.
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Fig. 21 Dominant water sloshing mode Fig. 22 Fundamental transverse flexural mode

The largest thermal movement was the longitudi-

nal expansion, and while the pool is free to extend,
the tendon rods had to be modified to allow expansion
of the PMMA while maintaining a minimum tension
to overcome bearing friction and overall stability. The
difference in thermal expansion for the two materials
is greater than a factor of 5 (Table 4).
Sometimes with longer cable walls in facades, the
extension on the cable itself provides enough axial elas-
ticity, but this was not possible here.
A Belleville spring stack was therefore designed to
maintain the rod tension in a defined range. Belleville
springs (Venkatesh 2018) perform the same function Fig. 23 Panel assembly
as coil springs, but they exhibit very different load to
deflection characteristics. The individual spring units,
that together form the stack, are shaped like truncated
cones. They are specialised for high-load and short-
travel situation. While the variation in the spring-stack
was considered initially from an operational condition,
the installation was to take place in winter when the
pool would be void of heated water. This environment
created the shortest state for the pool system. When in
operation, the water would be held at a constant com-
fortable swimming temperature throughout the year so
giving the PMMA a small temperature range.
The final design required 27 discs in series measur-
ing 250 mm in diameter, were 9.5 mm thick (Figs. 17,
18).
Another aspect of the thermal conditions is unequal Fig. 24 Raw cast blocks
heating across the cross section of PMMA. Where the
water is in contact with the PMMA, it is expected
that the local temperature will remain relatively con- the PMMA surface is in contact with air) creates a tem-
stant, while the variable ambient temperature (where perature gradient across the PMMA.

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The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 25 Machining panel edge prior to bonding
This variation causes both geometric changes that
affect the straightness of the bridge walls, but also the
stresses as the PMMA expands in a non-uniform way.
While the outward bow of the walls is unavoidable in
the current design it is within the acceptable limits. The
maximum expected outward bow is 80 mm (Fig. 19).
As can be seen in Fig. 20, the thermal loads cause
peak stresses at the lower face of the floor panel as the
hotter upper surface is expanded from the heat pro-
vided by the warm water. Also, significant stresses
occur along the outer surface of the wall adjacent to
the junction of the floor panel. While in the vertical
axis the walls can extend differentially and unimpeded
by bowing outward, in the transverse direction (across
the pool), the floor slab prevents this movement, and
so stresses are locked in.
Following more detailed design of this localised
stress condition in the Design and Build phase it was
agreed to increase the radius of the corners at the inter-
nal and external edges where the wall meets the floor
panel. This increase in radius provided a more gradual
transition to the right-angle joint and so reduced the
local stresses.
Another interesting aspect investigated is the slosh-
ing effects of any lateral accelerations imposed on the
pool from building sway.
Dynamic effects could affect the performance in two
ways: firstly, the comfort of the users of the pool; sec-
ondly, high stresses due to dynamic effects, includ-
ing dynamic impact of water on the steel and PMMA
upstands.
Studies included the natural frequencies of the pool
structure (including the mass of water) as well as water
sloshing frequencies. These frequencies are compared
to each other to assess whether interaction of the vibra-
tion modes is likely, in addition vortex shedding and
367
Fig. 26 Support frames in exterior oven
galloping are shown to not be significant for the pool
bridge structure.
The sloshing mode to most likely induce crosswind
vibrations and impact forces on the steel and PMMA
upstand is shown in Fig. 21.The frequency of this mode
is 0.32 Hz.
The fundamental flexural mode (Fig. 22) and other
modes are sufficiently distant from one another to not
be a cause for concern.
6 Fabrication
The specialist subcontractor appointed to assist in the
pre-construction phase for the project, was given the
responsibility of completing the design, fabrication,
and installation of the pool.
While they are a leader in their field, the proposed
design was a significant step forward that led its team
to carefully think about the method of construction.
Following handover to the fabricator, there were
very few changes made as the team there had been
providing advice though a pre contract service agree-
ment. However, one change was a modification to the
geometry. It was proposed that down stands on the side
walls, were removed in preference of a rounded cor-
ners to reduce local stresses and to simplify the bond-
ing sequence. The thicknesses of the walls and floors
were varied to better suit production (Fig. 23).
To build the pool, it was proposed to fabricate the
pool in its facility located in Grand Junction, Colorado
in the United States and then ship it across to the UK.
While the size of the facilities could fabricate the indi-
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Fig. 27 Bonded PMMA in the oven
Fig. 28 Polishing the surfaces
Fig. 29 Hydrostatic test
vidual panels, it could not contain the final structure.
At this point, there was some discussion about shipping
the component parts over and either bonding them on
site or in a rented business unit. However, maintaining
the operations under the skill of the workforce at the
factory was a priority so it was decided to erect a new,
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G. Coult
Fig. 30 Final inspection before transport
Fig. 31 Lifting the pool onto the transport frame
much larger temporary factory building on its yard area
outside to fabricate it meaning it was able to be shipped
as a single unit.
As the local conditions had winter lows of − 10 °C
and summer high of 35 °C the new building was heav-
ily insulated with careful management of the internal
temperature.
The panels they are initially cast as slabs, as can be
seen in Fig. 24. They are then cut to shape and milled
accordingly to achieve the individual panel size.
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 32 Lifting onto truck
Fig. 33 Road transport to container port, Galveston, TX
As with other materials, such as steel, when PMMA
is being worked, heat cycles can cause localised
stresses. For steel, such conditions are created during
welding, but for PMMA this can happen from the nor-
mally benign processes such as cutting and milling.
This, in turn, can alter the strength of the material and
the success of the bond. Careful annealing is required
to remove these effects.
Particular attention was taken during the proprietary
bonding process on the dimensions of the gap between
the panels and how the parts to be bonded were held
and stabilised. When the bond material (which is also
PMMA) is poured, the syrup, as it is usually termed,
will initially expand then and over the remainder of the
curing period contract beyond the initial gap width.
The tolerances that need to be complied with are
extremely tight, so quality control and preparation was
key. The fabricator chose to construct a milling machine
on rails (Fig. 25) that could provide improved toler-
ances from the largely manual processes that they are
used to.
369
Fig. 34 Loading onto container ship
Fig. 35 Arrival at Tilbury Docks
While the joint gap was small when compared to the
component parts, it was imperative to allow the parts to
move with the change in gap width caused by the bond
syrup expanding and contracting. Considering the size
and weight of these component parts, some weighting
more than 15t it was essential that the support system
was both stable and allowed movement where required
(Fig. 26).
If the component parts that were being bonded were
not allowed to move or have variable gap dimensions,
then bubbles could have formed in the joint. Apart from
the visual nature, such bubbles can also cause localised
stress concentrations. While they could not be elimi-
nated, tolerances were agreed.
To allow the joint dimension to be monitored before,
during and following curing of bonding syrup, tem-
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Fig. 36 Off loading
Fig. 37 Barge to Albert Embankment
porary PMMA blocks are bonded to the edges of the
components to be adhered (Fig. 27).
Following the bonding of the components, the parts
were annealed to reduce the possibility of any build-up
of stress that may have occurred, and then the surfaces
were prepared for polishing (Fig. 28).
The manual polishing could not achieve the flatness
that is expected from float glass and so an expectation
needed to be set. While wishing for a high level of finish
it was important to understand that the light and play of
water would have a significant effect on optical quality.
7 Testing and inspection
After polishing the pool structure, its performance was
verified by a hydrostatic load test. As the end steel tubs
were fabricated elsewhere, they were not available for
the test so a simple bladder was used as can be seen in
Fig. 29. A water bowser brought the water to the test
area at the fabricator’s facility and dial-guages were
placed to measure the defelections so that they could
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G. Coult
Fig. 38 500t crane lifting pool
be correlated against the numerical model from both
the fabricator’s model and the engineer’s model.
Following the successful hydrostatic test of the
PMMA unit, it was unwrapped from the protective film
and received its final polish so that it could be visually
inspected for any defects (Fig. 30).
Following approval of the visual inspection and
agreement of deflection values, the pool was wrapped
in film, and protective boards and lifted onto a transport
cradle (Fig. 31). The cradle and pool were then covered
in ply boards to protect against larger impacts ready to
be transported to site. The first stage of the journey was
transport by road (Figs. 32, 33) to the port in Galveston
in Texas.
The structure exceeded standard shipping containers
and so was shipped in an ‘open deck’ zone (Fig. 34).
After stopping off at the major shipping port in
Antwerp, the ship arrived at Tilbury Docks (Figs. 35,
36), to the west of London where it was transferred
onto a barge (Fig. 37) so that it could be brought close
to site via the ancient shipping thoroughfare, the River
Thames.
After being lifted into a trailer, it travelled the short
distance to the final lift position on site via road.
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 39 Temporary jacks to level tubs
Fig. 40 Pool load partially on sling
On the day of the lift, the protective plywood, corru-
gated plastic sheeting and surface film were removed
for the first time since wrapping in Colorado. Final
visual inspections verified that it would be safe for the
lift for installation.
371
Fig. 41 Manually operated hydraulic jack
Fig. 42 Permanent bearings
The Crane lifting contractor was responsible for the
safe and precise delivery of the pool unit 10 storeys up
between the two buildings. A Liebherr LTM1500 500t
crane was used with a fixed fly jib. On the morning of
the lift, the wind conditions were carefully monitored.
The consideration for the crane operator was not only
the weight of the pool, but it was also about controlling
the pool unit’s movement from wind. The jib extension
to enable the lift over the building place further restric-
tions. The lift with a vertical raise of over 35 m and
into position adjacent to the stainless steel tube took
just over 3 h (Fig. 38).
While the predominant pool load remained on the
crane, the tension was applied to the rods, in sequence.
As the tubs were pulled onto the PMMA section (Fig.
41), the temporary bracing restraining the tubs to the
respective buildings was removed. This delicate opera-
123
372 G. Coult

Fig. 44 Inspection of pool

Fig. 43 Test fill

tion transformed the temporary stability system from a

PMMA structure seating on two stiff abutments (pool
tubs) to a single 25 m structure pivoting on the tem-
porary bearings. To ensure that the temporary bearings
(shown on the top of the steel stub columns), Fig. 39,
were sliding effectively, dial gauges were placed at the
base of these cantilever columns to check for any unex-
pected rotation.
During jacking of the rods, the load of the pool
Fig. 45 Embassy gardens. Credit: Simon Kennedy
partially remained on the crane sling (Fig. 40). This
remained the case until the permanent stability system
was fully in place (Fig. 41).
The final procedure to bring the structure into its final surements of targets fixed to the pool. Using the two
position was to grout the permanent bearings. The per- total-stations positioned on opposing walls, meant that
manent bearings sit on top of concrete stub columns in the deflections of the buildings could be removed from
the plant rooms. In Fig. 42 the temporary steel supports the data to provide only pool movement.
can still be seen inside the outer columns. It was decided The monitoring data retrieved demonstrated that the
that they remain in place to aid any future maintenance structural system was acting as conceived. This allowed
on the permanent bearing. for the completion of landscaping works around the
For confirmation of the pool’s performance, staged pool and the roof deck, and the pool is now in use by the
test filling took place (Figs. 43, 44). To do this, the residents. The images shown in Figs. 45 and 46 show
pool was filled in increments of 200mm while two total- the achievement of the design and fabrication team in
stations positioned on the opposing buildings took mea- completing the ambitious brief set by the Client.

123
The skypool: bringing architectural imagination to life
Fig. 46 Skypool. Credit: Simon Kennedy
8 Conclusion
The Sky Pool is a testament to EcoWorld Ballymore’s
strong vision and its willingness to support that through
to completion. The construction of the pool has led to
a better understanding of the fabrication of complex
PMMA structures, and for Eckersley O’Callaghan, how
to work with polymers on large scale projects.
For a transparent structure of this nature, PMMA
provided the best mix of individual performance
requirements. The material drawbacks were mitigated
through design, fabrication and maintenance. The latter
being particularly applicable to the low surface tough-
ness.
A stark difference between glass and PMMA was the
high amount of labour involved. Like many other highly
specialised industries, the casting, machining and par-
ticularly polishing had a greater reliance on manual
processes rather than the automated processes seen in
the glazing industry. A certain craft remains, with skills
being retained and valued.
The sustainability of the pool is an important con-
sideration. New technological advancements mean the
polymer industry is now able to provide solutions to
the recycling of PMMA with the polymer being bro-
ken down into its monomer state, which is then used
to fabricate new PMMA. This molecular recycling is
already used in the polystyrene industry and has been
373
implemented by Lucite, a bulk material provider of the
monomers to PMMA fabricators (Neal 2020).
It is hoped that this project will also capture the
imagination of aspiring engineers and demonstrate
what dedicated teams of clients, contractors, engineers,
and fabricators can achieve.
Acknowledgements EcoWorld Ballymore |Sean Mulryan Eck-
ersley O’Callaghan |Brian Eckersley, Ian Langham, Sam Greg-
son Reynolds Polymer Technologies |Paul Gardner, Mike Ches-
ney, Dane Griffin Ballymore Group |Ben Blackwood, Richard
Royce HAL Architects |Hal Currey
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The author was employed by Eckersley
O’Callaghan during the design and construction of this project.
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