Pontoons. Artificial islands. Floating pools. Such could be the future of Sydney Harbour in a big vision that would turn its waterways into a swimmer’s paradise and an aquatic wonderland.
It’s no secret that come summer, it’s every person for themselves to score a sweet patch of sand at any beach possible—be it a sliver of prime real estate at Bondi Beach or some shady respite at Congwong. Wherever your pick of poison, there’s one thing that you’ve surely noticed over the years—Sydney’s population is soaring. Today, Sydney’s population sits approximately at 5,312,00 million people, that’s around a 20 per cent increase from 10 years ago.
Based on this population growth, the City of Sydney wants to make swimming in the harbour possible to alleviate beach crowds in the future. It’s a long shot right now because of how polluted Sydney Harbour is but the plan has been inspired by the likes of Copenhagen, one of the only cities in Europe where the harbour water is clean enough to swim and home to several harbour baths.
The project would be entirely reliant on improving Sydney Harbour’s water quality, pollution levels would need to decrease dramatically and minor infrastructure would be implemented to aid this. While nothing has really been solidified yet, the City of Sydney basically commissioned ABA Architects (the same brains behind the award-winning Gunyama Park Aquatic Recreation Centre) to flesh out what Sydney’s "swimmable" harbour could look like.
The proposals show pontoons, waterside swimming lanes, floating pools and artificial islands. It may be a pipe dream but damn it looks good.
Now, check out 25 Martin Place's incredible $175m transformation.
Image credit: ABA Architects