The Natural Pool

Natural pools are designed to look like ponds, lagoons or other natural bodies of water but are really fully functioning swimming pools. Both of the natural pools featured here use a unique process of ozone gas and ultraviolet light to filter the water without the use of chemicals.

Figure B (click to enlarge)

Duck Pond Pool

The first pool was designed by Isabelle Greene, one of America's most celebrated landscape architects. Her training in botany is evident in her seamless blending of the natural environment and her pools. A wonderful example of her work is this natural pool, set into four acres of gorgeous woodlands near Santa Barbara, California.

The estate's large lawn is scattered with natural boulders, many of which make up the edge of the free-form swimming pool that looks like a natural pond. Lush plants blend in harmony with the surroundings. The bottom of the pool uses dark gunnite, which helps create a reflective surface that captures the sky and simulates the look of a pond or lake. The pool's biggest compliment comes from a family of ducks who, thinking the pool was a pond, made their home there.

Figure D (click to enlarge)

Boulder-Bound Pool

The second natural pool, located near Sacramento, California, was designed by landscape designer Michael Glassman. Michael used more than 300 boulders, some weighing up to eight tons each. Placed in what seems like a haphazard fashion around the pool, these rocks assume the look of natural outcroppings as many of the boulders are buried in the ground and covered with lichen and moss.

The 45-by-25-foot pool also has a whirlpool, which is fed by two small waterfalls. The whirlpool, in turn, overflows into the main pool.