Project Overview

Plus Pool (+ POOL), is an initiative to build the world’s first water-filtering, floating pool in New York.

Organisation

Family & PlayLab

 

Team

Dong-Ping Wong (Family)
Archie Lee Coates IV (PlayLab)
Jeff Franklin (PlayLab)

Project Brief

Plus Pool (+ POOL), is an initiative to build the world’s first water-filtering, floating pool in New York. Since + POOL’s designers and founders, Dong-Ping Wong, Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeff Franklin, launched their first Kickstarter campaign in 2011, the + POOL project has become a new model for funding large-scale civic projects worldwide. + POOL’s Kickstarter campaign in July 2013 helped the team surpass their goal by raising $273K from 3,175 supporters from all around the world. The deck, walls and floor of + POOL will be made of 70,000 pool tiles. If each tile is claimed, it will fund the entire $15 million construction budget of + POOL, making it the largest publicly funded civic project to date. The team successfully launched Float Lab in April 2014, the mini, temporary and floating science-lab version of + Pool's filtration system, currently docked at Hudson River Park's Pier 40 in the Hudson River. + POOL is scheduled for an opening in Spring of 2016.

Project Innovation/Need

1. We've proposed and are currently designing the world's first water-filtering floating pool. The development of the project in New York has incredible implications worldwide: 90% of the world's most populated metropolitan cities are situated on or around water that isn't yet swimmable.

2. We've developed a new model for funding large-scale civic projects. First through two successful Kickstarter campaigns, and now with our continued Tile by Tile campaign, offering supporters a chance to literally own a piece of the POOL, and have their name on it forever.

3. As we test and develop the filtration system, we've launched one of the largest water quality tests ever done in New York's rivers. We've connected with organizations such as Riverkeeper, River Project, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and Columbia University to not only understand the health of the river, but how we can work together to change it.

4. Using the collected data, we've worked with Google to develop a water quality dashboard that visualizes in real-time the water quality of New York rivers, making the information easy to access, open-sourced, and fun.

Design Challenge

+ POOL has many design challenges:

1. Technology/Filtration: this type of water filtration for a floating pool has never been done before.

2. Permitting/Regulations: There are a variety of city agencies that need to not only permit but support the project on mulitple levels.

3. Funding: Since the project is self-initiated, we're fundraising as we simultaneously design and push the project forward. We've launched two successful Kickstarter campaigns, totaling almost 5,000 backers. We just recently filed for a 501(c)3 non-profit called "Friends of + POOL," with the goal of fundraising for the development, construction and eventual maintenance of + POOL in New York.

Sustainability

There are many levels of sustainability for + POOL, the biggest being that it uses actual river water. Like a giant strainer, + POOL filters river water through the walls of the pool, allowing New Yorkers to swim in clean river water safely. Additionally, + POOL filters water on the way out, at a rate of 1 million gallons of water every two days. We're also designing a sustainable economic model for the project.