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The World’s 11 Most Beautiful Sea Pools

September 15, 2023

From Mexico to France, these sea pools are stunning both for their engineering feats as well as their elegant designs

by Elizabeth Stamp
Sea pools (also known as saltwater swimming pools, tidal, or ocean pools) can be found on coastlines worldwide, allowing swimmers to enjoy a dip in an otherwise challenging location. Most of these man-made saltwater sanctuaries are naturally refreshed twice daily by the high tides and offer a safe place to swim, protected from rocky shorelines or rough seas. “They were always built to overcome [lack of] access to water, which is why I was drawn to them,” says architect Chris Romer-Lee, author of Seapools (Batsford). “And when you start to look at where they’re located, they’re in very particular points, such as in Cornwall and Scotland, where it’s often very rocky on the foreshore or on the sandy beaches, where you have a very long tide that goes out for miles.” For areas relying on tourism, salt water swimming pools provide their visitors the ability to enjoy the water anytime, and in the southern hemisphere, they add the bonus of protecting swimmers from sharks and jellyfish.
The topic has become a source of fascination for Romer-Lee, one of the directors of London-based firm Studio Octopi, who has worked on several sea pool projects and is the founder of Thames Baths, an organization dedicated to restoring outdoor swimming to the Thames River. For the book, the architect selected 66 salt water swimming pools around the world, getting to know their histories and the communities they serve. “The selection process was incredibly difficult because I suddenly had a tsunami of these pools,” he says. “As an architect, I was drawn to the ones with architectural features—either massive engineering feats, or with very elegant pavilions, or interesting features.” Read on to discover 11 of the stunning sea pools that made the cut.
Photo: Tim Seaton
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Curl Curl Rock Pool (Curl Curl, New South Wales, Australia)

Set in Curl Curl, a suburb of Sydney, the Curl Curl Rock Pool consists of two sea pools located on either end of the beach. The South Pool was built in 1927, and the North Pool (shown here) followed in 1937. The North Pool has a rocky outcrop in the center, and its location makes it particularly vulnerable to the elements. It was destroyed by heavy seas in the late 40s and had to be rebuilt in 1957.
Photo: Carl Brightman
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Chapel Rock (Perranporth, Cornwall, UK)

A large rock in the bay at Perranporth on the north coast of Cornwall in England is home to a small but stunning sea pool built in 1959 by Messrs E. Thomas & Co. Chapel Rock was reportedly once home to a small chapel, possibly still standing as late as 1733. Today, the tidal pool is popular with families and the local wild swimming group, the Perranporth Bluetits.
Romer-Lee sees the potential for a sea pool resurgence—and perhaps even the creation of new pools, particularly in the UK, where building a new indoor or outdoor pool has become increasingly expensive. “These very simple structures are coming back into their own because they are easy ways to get people into water,” he says. “There’s this huge movement [to go] back to swimming outdoors. The Outdoor Swimming Society, which is based in the UK but operates globally, has had an astonishing membership increase over the last 10 to 15 years. So I think the time is right to bring bring these back.”
Photo: Turismo de Islas Canarias
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Pozo De Las Calcosas (Canary Islands, Spain)

Located on El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, Pozo De Las Calcosas consists of two tidal pools, one natural and one man-made. Ripples of solidified lava define the landscape surrounding the structures, and a basalt cobbled path forms a border between the two pools. The pools are connected by a large pipe that helps fill the man-made side, which was constructed in the 19th century and may have been a former saltpan.
Photo: Onnis Luque
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La Carpa Olivera (Sinaloa, Mexico)

La Carpa Olivera was built in 1914 by chef Antonio Olivera, who wanted to create a restaurant and pool inspired by the piers in his former home of Lisbon and the Portuguese coast. The pool’s eye-catching spiral slide was added in 2014 when architect Erick Pérez and the architects collective Colectivo Urbano restored the hurricane-damaged pool.
Photo: Studio Octopi
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Saltcoats Bathing Pond (Saltcoats, North Ayrshire, UK)

One of Studio Octopi’s ongoing projects is refurbishing the Saltcoats Bathing Pond on the West Coast of Scotland. The structure was built between 1907 and 1908, then rebuilt in the 1930s and again in the 1980s. In 2022, the firm was hired to revive the pool. “​​What we wanted to do is ensure that it was accessible to everyone, regardless of mobility and ability, says Romer-Lee. The redesigned pool would have a ramp and steps leading into it, accommodating sports such as kayaking and paddleboarding. The firm also wanted to make it a place that would attract visitors who weren’t planning to swim. “It doesn’t matter whether you swim, whether you just want to hang out and have a picnic, whether you want to chat, whether you want to watch things going on, because it’s free, accessible, fun to watch, a bit of a theater, it becomes a bit more at the heart of the town,” he says.
Photo: Jay Caboz
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Harmony Park (Cape Town, South Africa)

Romer-Lee discovered a darker side to the construction of sea pools when researching the tidal pools of South Africa. “I began to realize that they were built during the apartheid regime to service the new communities that had been moved from the center of Cape Town out to the Cape Flats,” he says. “And suddenly, the whole thing became a little bit more sinister. Some of those pools were built on knowingly dangerous beaches, in the sense that they had very strong tides or rip currents to them.” Harmony Park was built from 1991–’92 as South African beaches were being desegregated, but it was initially designed for citizens classified as mixed-race by the Apartheid government. The pool was designed with blow holes and “wave splitters” along the seawall to create a spectacle from the crashing waves. Five islands with pumped fountains and plunge pools dot the structure.
Photo: Elisabeth Blanchet
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Piscine De Mer De Granville (Normandy, France)

Sea bathing has been a popular pastime in Granville, France, since the 19th century, but it wasn’t until 1960 that the town—nicknamed the Monaco of the North—started opening tidal pools. The first of the town’s three tidal pools to be built, Piscine De Mer De Granville (shown here), is set on the beach below the childhood home of designer Christian Dior. The 50-meter pool is outfitted with concrete starting blocks and can be accessed during low tide via a concrete path. Two more pools, Saint-Pair-sur-Mer and Mer de Donville-les-Bains, were constructed in 1967.
Photo: Anastasia Benjafield
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Lewinnick Cove House Pool (Newquay, England)

Lawyer and financier Frederick Baker built an Italian-style villa overlooking Fistral Bay on the Cornwall coast, completing the design in 1927. A tidal pool is set below the home’s Italianate terraces and was carved out of the cliff’s rock. The pool is lined with white-glazed bricks and turquoise mosaics. The house has since been subdivided into apartments, and the pool has survived brutal winter storms and remains in private use.
Photo: Turismo de Islas Canarias
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Piscinas De Roque Prieto (Gran Canaria, Spain)

Located on the Spanish Island of Gran Canaria, Piscinas De Roque Prieto transformed a barren beach into a well-loved spot for sunbathing and swimming, demonstrating Romer-Lee’s idea of sea pools as “liquid piazzas.” The twin tidal pools are marked by sunken concrete trunks that line the seawall and the pathway between the two pools. Stairs and a ramp lead to the main pool, while the second pool can be accessed via a small concrete plinth and ladder.
Photo: Massimo Vitali
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Piscinas Naturais De Porto Moniz (Madeira, Portugal)

In 1940, an ancient cluster of saltwater pools was adapted into one spectacular sea pool on the coast of Porto Moniz in Portugal, thanks to the construction of a concrete seawall. White concrete and a curvaceous edge give the pool its distinctively modern look. The pool received updates over the years and was fully completed in 1975.
Photo: Thibault Poriel
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Piscine D’Eau de Mer de Saint-Quay-Portrieux (Brittany, France)

This pear-shaped sea pool was constructed on the coast of Brittany, France, in 1929. Built in just four months, the pool is accessed by an impressive white-railed staircase, and it features a cantilevered diving platform. A second, more shallow pool is located between the main sea pool and the beach and is protected by an outcrop of rocks, making it an ideal paddling pool for children, according to Romer-Lee.
Photo: Courtesy of Batsford
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Seapools (Batsford, August 2023)
This article is originally available at www.architecturaldigest.com