All language subtitles for Best.Pool.Ever.S01E02.Out-of-the-Box.Pools.1080p.WEB.x264-CAFFEiNE

We've really been
the talk of the world.

Narrator:
Ever wonder what your neighbor's
pool really looks like

but just can't see
past the fence?

This sort of
black circle of water

literally in the treetops
was an exciting idea.

Narrator: Well, don't worry.

We've done all the dirty work
for you.

A conventional pool
was not gonna work.

And what you will see
is going to blow your mind.

He said, "I want to swim
with the fishes."

oh-ho!

Junaid: This has probably
never been done.

It's a high-class living.

Narrator:
So, bust out that lounge chair
and soak it all in,

because we're showing you

the most epic pools
around the country.

The only question is,

which one will leave you saying
"best pool ever"?

It's floating in midair.

Narrator: These pools are feats
of engineering, tests of nature,

and meant to push the limits.

These are the best
out-of-the-box pools.

[ water bubbling ]

this pool in northern california

is far from your
average swimming pool,

with a focus on creating

the most natural
environment possible.

Our backyard mixes a lot
of our loves together.

We are really focused
on sustainability.

My wife loves to garden,
so we have a vegetable garden.

We have a tent in the backyard
for camping out.

But the best part is
the all-natural swimming pool.

I actually thought about
building a pond

with, like, a clay bottom.

That was pretty impractical.

Narrator: So tony and his wife
set out to build

one of the most natural-looking

and environmentally friendly
pools of its kind.

Tony: When you walk into
the backyard,

the first thing you notice
is the pool and the rockwork.

Then you start to focus
in on the plants,

you start to hear
the waterfalls,

and you kind of quickly
find a sense of peace

by being in the backyard.

♪♪

he said, "I want to swim
with the fishes,"

as the mafia would say.

♪♪

that's a really unique thing.

We actually hired on
a biological consultant

from oregon
who builds lakes in nature

to come and help us set up
the biology here.

♪♪

we worked together
to come up with

a biological filtration system,
which is very unique.

I had never done one
like this before.

Natural swimming pools use
a wetland for filtration,

so the water filters
through plants and biota.

We had to re-create that in a
trough that was under our deck.

So their spa is
100% clear, sparkling water

with no chemicals.

♪♪

the planning was about a year,

and the construction, a little
over a year and three months.

To shape the pool,
we wanted to have

a little more of a river look,
and so not like a linear pool,

but something
with just a slight bend to it.

The pool is done
out of concrete.

Bringing rocks from all over
the place with cranes

and putting them in positions

limits you and what you can
actually create.

There is no plaster
in this pool.

There is no tile.

It involves my
artificial rockwork,

which we manufacture
in my own factory.

It just looks real.

At the deep end, the pool
is about 10 feet deep.

It's about 20 feet wide
and about 45 feet long

as it stretches along the river.

There are seven waterfalls
in the pool.

The waterfalls create
a little bit of trickling noise.

♪♪

we also have diving rocks,

so you can jump off 6- or 7-foot
cliffs into the pool.

Our hot tub is actually
a standing-depth hot tub,

so you can actually
stand shoulder-deep

with jets up your back.

I feel like I'm in
a tropical grotto.

This hot tub is 104 degrees
and perfect.

This is a pool
that's full of surprises.

♪♪

we have a snuba set up,

which is an ability
to breathe underwater.

You can actually explore.

You see fish, you see plants,
you see life.

So it's really an experience.

The fish are the best part.

♪♪

I've probably shot
over 30 pools underwater.

This pool is the one to do it in

compared to any other pool
that I've been in.

It was fun.
It's pretty cool down there.

[ splash ]

narrator: This next pool,
in houston, texas,

is an engineering feat.

We're right in the middle
of downtown,

and the client
was very open to new ideas.

He was looking for it to be
a signature building in town,

something that had things that
no other residential building

in houston had.

The idea came up of a cantilever
pool, or projecting pool,

that would be visible
throughout houston.

Narrator: The pool is
on top of the 42-story

market square tower
apartment building

in downtown houston, texas.

That was the goal, really,
to take this to another level,

to make it a real icon
for houston.

The pool is about 4 feet deep.

It is 48,000 gallons.

There's the swimming area,

and there is a shelf deck
for sunbathing,

that you can put
lounge chairs out there

and sit in about
6 inches of water.

When you get in the pool
and you start walking out there,

it's very much like
a traditional pool.

Whoo!

But then you come to an edge

where the concrete
meets the acrylic.

Oh-ho!
Look.

And you're able to walk out
onto the acrylic,

and you have
a straight shot down below,

down the face of the building

all the way to the sidewalk
and the street below.

It projects about
a little over 8 feet out

from the face of the building,

and it's supported by two
8-feet-deep concrete beams.

Narrator: Between the
structural engineering,

material testing, and building,

the project was nearly
five years in the making.

We were in design for
the project for about two years,

and construction took 30 months.

We used one of the best
structural engineers in town.

We used a special crystalline
concrete to make it waterproof,

epoxy-coated rebar
so all the metal in there

wouldn't have any risk of
rusting out in the future,

designed it such that
it will support the pool

if it were overflowing and had
hurricane-force winds on it.

♪♪

the cantilever pool is
made up of 320 square feet

of 5 1/2-inch-thick acrylic.

It's in a curved shape so that
the acrylic makes both the floor

and the wall of the leading edge
of the pool,

so we've really been
kind of the talk of the world.

You see this?
[ laughs ]

the glass in the ground --
ohh! [ laughing ] oh, man.

It's nice that you can sit
in the pool and lounge

while you're staying cool
by the water,

and then you plunge
and then take a view

and then go back to your chair
right inside the water.

It's a high-class living.

It's a real chill atmosphere,
hanging out with your friends.

Perfect location -- perfect.

♪♪

narrator: This next pool
is the centerpiece

of this high-tech home.

The pool became kind of
the anchor of the house.

But the suspended dining room

is just the beginning
of this modern marvel.

You won't believe what kind
of designs I can come up with.

And a repurposed pool

that fits right into
its natural surroundings.

So, these are
the original redwoods

that were on
the california coast.

It doesn't look like
a swimming pool.

♪♪

♪♪

[ water bubbling ]

♪♪

narrator: When it comes to
high-tech, futuristic pools,

nothing beats the brainchild
of architect malika

and her engineer husband,
junaid.

You put an engineer
and an architect together,

it's a pretty fun dynamic.

[ laughs ]

they designed and built
this house

in the hills of silicon valley,

and the creation quickly became
a passion project for them

and their two young daughters.

This house was our third child,
which we created together.

This was a very
unique thing for us

because I haven't done
anything like this before.

There was nothing here.

Our construction time
was nearly two years.

It was done all
from scratch.

The pool definitely is the
highlight of this whole thing.

We both like
modern architecture a lot.

We are very
minimalistic.

We like open spaces,
natural light.

The pool became kind of
the anchor of the house

with everything
radiating towards it,

so the kitchen,

the dining room,

the family room,

everything opens up
into that space.

You can see the pool
from everywhere.

Their daughters are also
competitive swimmers,

so they built this pool
specifically for them

to train throughout the season.

The pool is about 12 feet wide
by 60 feet long.

The depth is about 5 1/2
and goes as deep as 8 feet.

We wanted the pool
to have,

like, an outdoor/indoor
connection,

something which
will actually

open up the back
of the house completely.

♪♪

so, the solution --

a 40-foot, retractable
aircraft-hangar door,

powered by
push-button hydraulics.

♪♪

this has probably
never been done,

using the
aircraft-hangar door

the way we have used it
in the residence.

Junaid actually worked
really closely

with our
structural engineer,

and we came up
with this bracing design.

It looks like an extension
of the hydraulics,

but actually,
it is a steel bracing

that we put in place
to stop the forces

from carrying back
into the house --

basically, keep our finishes
from cracking.

The airport-hangar door
was one of the funnest

and the most complicated
things we've done

in the house together.

From an engineering point
of view, it was stressful.

[ both laugh ]

but it was fun.

It is a totally
different experience

when that door is open.

Check out the view.

♪♪

they didn't stop
at engineering feats.

They also mimicked
michelangelo's iconic

sistine chapel art
at the bottom of the pool.

The painting that you see
in the pool,

as an architecture student,

that was one of my favorite,
favorite paintings.

Each tile is an inch by inch
that's hand-installed.

And our
friends and family,

they all just gather
around food.

We wanted a glass structure
right over the pool,

so we can see right through
where we could sit and eat

and feel like we
are suspended in air.

The dining room is about
10 feet above the pool --

the triple glass floor,
so it's extremely safe.

You won't believe
what kind of designs

I can come up with
on paper,

but, you know, like,
how to implement it

and how to trust
that we can actually do it,

I think only an engineer
and entrepreneur

can really push
the limits for it.

[ chuckles ]

♪♪

an indoor/outdoor setup
can be the best way

to get a year-round pool,

but in a sunshine city, like
manhattan beach, california,

this indoor/outdoor pool

wasn't designed to get the most
out of any kind of weather.

It was a way to make
the best use of space.

For michael's pool,

a conventional pool
was not gonna work.

The narrow lot
he had to build on

left no room for a yard,
let alone a pool.

That's when I saw the container
pool was a perfect fit.

The most interesting feature
of the pool --

it's got two
4-foot-by-8-foot windows.

We realized we were building him
a human aquarium.

♪♪

something we hadn't
done before.

Instead of a tv
in your living room

are people
swimming past your pool.

It's just the best
entertainment, live.

That was the centerpiece
of the design.

♪♪

it actually legitimately is
a shipping container repurposed.

They're manufactured
in a shop,

and they're shipped
all across north america,

and they're really easy
to mobilize and use.

Michael:
The whole house took us

about a year and four months
to build, designed it myself.

The fact that he built it
into his house,

I mean,
is pretty awesome.

To take it from my brain
and get it done

and put the tile around it

and get it working
was just magical.

Woman: Who's
jumping in first?
Me!

I want to.
I want to.
No, me!

1, 2, 3...

Whoo!

[ michael laughs ]

paul: So, the roof's
literally cut out.

You get sunlight directly
into the pool.

Michael:
I like to blur the lines
between interior and exterior.

You'll see that
with the foldaway doors.

My favorite part of
the whole house is the pool.

It's just everything
I dreamed and hoped for

finally comes to fruition.

[ kids cheering and laughing ]

narrator: Unique pools are often
born out of necessity,

but for the next design,
the challenge was

they didn't have anything to
start with in the first place.

The only way you can
describe this pool is

it's floating in midair,

and that makes it
very, very unique.

This window is, like,
the gate to nature, infinity.

It's amazing.

♪♪

[ water bubbling ]

♪♪

narrator: On a canyon's edge of
the santa monica mountains

is a pool
that stands above the rest.

♪♪

the only way you can
describe this pool is

it's floating in midair,

and that makes it
very, very unique.

One of the reasons
we bought this home is

because the view is
quite spectacular,

and we decided that it's
probably a good thing

to have a pool.

Narrator:
The house sits on a steep cliff
overlooking the canyon,

which makes building
a pool here nearly impossible.

Man: Hey. You're very brave,
doing that.

When you stand in this house
and you look out at the view

and someone says,
"well, I want a pool,"

the next question is, "well,
where do you want this pool?"

because you don't
have any space.

How do you make something
unique and interesting

and make it work with the land

and the home
that you're working with?

This kind of project is exactly
the type of project

that I like to do
because it is very challenging.

The entire pool is
founded into bedrock

with large concrete caissons.

♪♪

narrator:
Caissons are support pillars

made up of thousands of pounds
of concrete.

The seven caissons
hold the pool up

and give the impression that
the pool is floating in midair.

To make it even more complex,
there was no access.

It was literally a
5- or 6-foot-wide access area.

That was challenging,
to say the least.

The pool is about 12x42 overall.

Narrator:
And this pool emulates

the contemporary design
of the house.

Don:
The infinity edge on this pool
is a traditional infinity edge,

and it flows over the edge

of the downhill portion
of this pool.

However, the other side
of the pool --

that's the house side --

has what we call a
perimeter overflow edge,

which has the water
flow over the top

and down into a hidden channel.

When swimming in the pool

and you go towards
the infinity edge,

it's just spectacular --
the view,

and you can just float
and stare out for hours.

♪♪

the jacuzzi's a lot of fun
to just sit in,

have a drink,
and look at the view.

It's very popular
with our friends.

Narrator: Seeing the canyon
across the pool

is, no doubt, amazing,

but it isn't the only way
to appreciate this view.

They also added
commercial-grade windows

outside a lower-level office

and on the exterior side
of the pool,

so you can see all the way
through the structure.

I suggested the windows
for the pool

because if we didn't have
a window there,

there would have been
no view whatsoever.

You have the beautiful
sparkling water day and night,

which really enhances the view
from inside the house.

Narrator:
Both windows are below the water
inside the pool,

made from high-grade
custom acrylic

typically used in aquariums.

This window is, like,
the gate to nature, infinity.

It's amazing.

This house, although it's
very valuable as-is,

will probably be increased
by many millions of dollars

just because of the pool.

♪♪

narrator: It's called
the viking triathlon.

So, you start in the hot tub,
then you go into the sauna,

then you step out
and you jump into the water.

But you have to do it quickly.

If you think about how cold it
is, you're never gonna do it.

Your whole body, like,
tenses up immediately,

but it feels good,
in a weird way.

Whoo!

♪♪

narrator: Deep in
the sonoma redwood forest

in northern california

is a pool that blends
right into its environment.

Olle: It doesn't look like
a swimming pool.

I think for me,

it was almost more of
the sculptural opportunity,

this sort of
black circle of water

literally in the treetops,
which was just an exciting idea.

Narrator: 10 years ago,
before the pool was even here,

olle built and designed
a cabin on this property.

Olle: I built it mostly myself.
I'm an architect.

You know, I've always built
the places I've lived in.

I'm a builder, I'm a maker,
so to me, it's never work.

The general architecture here
is rectilinear, right angles.

There's nothing curved,

so the pool is
this curved accent piece.

Narrator: A pool wasn't in his
original plans for the house,

but olle happened to be in the
right place at the right time.

I was working on
a project in napa,

and it had this enormous
redwood water tank on it,

and they were gonna bulldoze it,

and they said, "if you want it,
you can have it,

but we need it out of here
in a month."

so in a month, we scrambled,
and we had to dig foundations,

we had to pour concrete,

we had to reframe part
of the deck to accommodate it.

And then it was, well,
how do you get the tank there?

Found a company -- they took it
apart, reassembled it.

We filled it with water.

It's now a swimming pool.

So, these are
the original redwoods

that were on
the california coast.

They grew very, very slowly.

They have incredibly
tight grain,

and they have
so much tannin in them

that as long as they stay wet,
nothing happens to the wood.

It doesn't rot.

This is without question
our most photographed,

most recognized project
we've done.

The pool is 25 feet in diameter,
14 feet deep.

It's about 50,000 gallons
of water.

Most pools, you have to put
a lot of chemicals in

to keep the water clean.

I never really wanted
to put chemicals in this,

and then I found out, also, that
chlorine is really bad for wood.

Narrator: So olle had to create
his own way to clean the water

and built
a biofiltration system.

You create another
body of water,

which is really a wetlands,

so it has aeration,
it has filtration,

and it has plants
that will eat the algae

and the other impurities
that you want to get rid of

and then pumping it back
into the pool.

I discovered this round-barrel
sauna made in canada,

which, of course, relates
to the circle of the pool

and it just -- it seemed
so perfect for it,

so I was like, "okay,
that's the sauna. That's it."

so we added the sauna,
and, of course, we had to build,

like, a two-story tower
to put the thing in,

so not the easiest
foundation for a sauna.

We had to make
all the modifications

to use the wood stove,
and then we modified the front

to hold the firewood and
the kindling and all of that,

which is not part of their kit.

We added a hot tub.

You get hot in the hot tub,
you jump in the pool --

back and forth.

Narrator: Olle combined
all these elements --

the pool, the sauna,
the hot tub --

into what he calls
the viking triathlon.

It's a favorite dare
among his nephew and friends

when they come up to visit.

So, you start in the hot tub...

Then you go into the sauna.

Now it's 200 degrees dry heat --
very different.

You sit in there
about 10, 15 minutes.

Then you step out
and you jump into the water.

But you have to do it quickly.

If you have time to think about
how cold it is

or how cold it's gonna be
when you hit that water,

you're never gonna do it.

Ohh!

Your whole body, like,
tenses up immediately,

but it feels good,
in a weird way.

♪♪

when I think of california,

I think of the cabin
and the redwoods.

You know, now with the latest
addition, sauna and the pool,

it's just been
an amazing place to be.

Olle: I've always wanted a place
to get away in the forest.

This is, to me,
what being up here is about --

cooking, you know, making food
for friends, entertaining.

Hear, hear.

[ laughter ]

good girl.
Good girl.

Good girl.

Olle: It's always been
a place of respite, retreat.

I can't imagine a project

that would have met our needs
better than this one has.

♪♪

narrator: These pools are far
from your standard rectangle.

They're extraordinary
and top-of-the-line

in building, design,
and function.

By challenging the unthinkable,
these pools became art.

They're the talk of the town
and the world

and the best part
of a backyard summer day.

♪♪

[ kids cheering and laughing ]