Note
Poplar is eight metres long and two and a half wide, which is enough to swim properly rather than just cool off, and it is one of the best looking pools we have built.

Black water and pale stone

The shell is an EPDM liner finished with natural stone, and the appeal of that combination is immediate. The liner reads as deep black, so the water takes on the character of a rock pool rather than a swimming pool. It goes dark, it reflects the sky and the planting around it, and it gives no clue as to where the bottom is. Against that darkness sits natural stone, warm and irregular and full of texture. The contrast between the two is the whole look, and it is the reason we keep coming back to this build.

Stone also solves the edge. Instead of a hard manufactured line where the pool stops and the garden starts, the stone runs into the planting and the pool settles into the ground as though the water found the spot on its own.

A smaller wetland, a bigger swim

The other half of Poplar is what is happening behind the scenes. This pool is a hybrid, running a gravel wetland together with our Eco Fusion technology rather than relying on the wetland alone.

That matters more than it sounds. In a conventional natural pool, water quality is bought with surface area, and the wetland has to be sized as a substantial proportion of the pool. On a normal suburban plot that is a painful trade. Every square metre given to the regeneration zone is a square metre taken away from swimming.

Pairing the wetland with Eco Fusion changes the ratio. The wetland can be considerably smaller relative to the swim zone while the water still holds, so the owner gets the planted, living edge they wanted and a proper swimming area instead of a token one. At Poplar that is the difference between a pond you can get into and a pool you can actually swim in.