London infinity pool: World's first 360-degree infinity pool planned

How's this for a bird's-eye view of London?

Well, if UK pool designers Compass Pools gets it way, this 360-degree rooftop pool over 220 metres in the air could start construction in 2020.

Called "Infinity London" this high-concept design features a 600,000-litre cast acrylic pool on top of a 55-storey building.

The bottom of the pool will be transparent allowing uninterrupted views from below, and a special computer-controlled building management system will regulate the pool temperatures (necessary for the less-than-stellar London weather), as well as preventing all that water from spilling over the sides onto the streets below.

Other features include using the building's waste energy from the air conditioning system to heat the water.

And how do you access this pool? Well, Compass Pools' technical director Alex Kemsley explains: "We faced some quite major technical challenges to this building, the biggest one being how to actually get into the pool.

"Normally a simple ladder would suffice, but we didn't want stairs on the outside of the building or in the pool as it would spoil the view – and obviously you don't want 600,000 litres of water draining through the building either.