A refreshing dip in an outdoor pool, surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature, is heaven on a warm summer’s day. Yet, due to out-dated designs and eco-concerns, pools can have a reputation as a property market passion-killer rather than a selling point. However, the tide may be turning at last. Pools have been reinvented over the past few years by specialist designers and landscapers. Instead of novelty shapes, the latest sunken pools have sober straight lines made even slicker with a deck-level water line or a vanishing or infinity edge.
If you want to go one step further and combine good taste with the greenest technology, then it’s got to be a natural swimming pool. It’s a form that’s been around in Austria and Germany since the 1980′s but has only recently broken through in this country. Each pool has a swimming area and a planted zone; the plant’s natural cleaning properties are backed up with filtration and surface-skimming systems. The pool builds up a healthy ecosystem in which organisms such as zooplankton that becomes algae. Maintenance costs are low and the small regular tasks, such as collecting weeds and clearing leaves, are easy to do.