Extraordinary Pools

by Naina Gupta

A visual feast of fifty wonderfully distinctive and architecturally astounding swimming pools from around the world

Extraordinary Pools is a mosaic of exceptional public and private examples of pools, reasserting the protean quality of the swimming pool as a space of activity, pleasure, and excess. Illustrated with awe-inspiring color photography, it showcases stunning examples of architecturally significant swimming pools around the world, Lubetkin’s modernist Penguin Pool at the London ZooThe world’s largest infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands in SingaporeThe landmark Julia Morgan-designed City Club pool in Berkeley, CaliforniaLuis Barragan's signature L-shaped pools at Cuadra San Cristobal in MexicoAnd many more
Woven throughout are essays by swimmers and architectural experts on the role swimming pools have played in shaping modern culture, from the 1932 Olympics and Mussolini’s campaign to redefine the new Italian Fascist as physically fit, disciplined, and virile to the dawn of circular backyard pools in California that became playgrounds for skateboarders during the great drought of the 1970s. With its lush imagery and lively discussion, Extraordinary Pools will dazzle recreationists and architecture enthusiasts alike.

STUNNING Illustrated with full-color images throughout, Extraordinary Pools is an aspirational, covetable volume befitting any design lover's coffee table display.

ENDLESSLY Swimming pools are status symbols and objects of interest regardless of climate or season. Whether they are used for athletic pursuits or the simple joy of relaxing in water, found indoors or out, are kidney-shaped or Olympic-sized, pools are an enthralling source of visual and aesthetic pleasure.

EXPERIENCED Naina Gupta, a practicing architect who teaches at the Architectural Association of the School of Architecture in London, turns her trained eye on a dazzling array of pools to explore their visual impact and cultural significance.

Perfect beach lovers, and pool enthusiastsCollectors of architecture, design, and home décor booksHost/hostess or housewarming giftArchitectural history buffsPhotography fans and armchair travelers

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

Published May 13, 2025

Reviews

[Jess Svajgert · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: May 13, 2025

Honestly picked this up only expecting some pretty photos. It delivered beautiful photography as well as in depth history and stories behind swimming and pools in general as well as the individual pools featured. A gorgeous book just waiting for your coffee table!

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinary Pools is as the title implies all about unique or unusual pools. I am not sure what the criteria was for choosing different pools but there are various pools both private and public. Some have been used for international Olympics, others for modern hotels. I love that one is used by penguins in the London Zoo. I think this leans more to architectural interests than coffee table books, as there is good information about the background and significance of pools that are included. Most of the pools are in Europe and North America but there is representation for other continents.

As a traveler I’ve only seen the pool in the zoo but recognized a couple others from movies. I did like the locations were included in the back if someone wanted to visit the pools in person. While I personally wouldn’t need to own the book I would gladly check it out from a library. I thought the book overall was informative and the photos beautiful. This is one of those books that if you are interested in the topic you’ll probably enjoy it. Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review.

[Arathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's difficult for me to review this book, but i'll try:

context: i love pools, i've been learning to swim the past few days so i spend a lot of time in them, and i am always curious about the places i spend time in.

content: the photos were so gorgeous. the pools were so pretty, i wanted to actually do a little tour of all the pools covered in them. the information about them, i devoured (as much as possible)

editorial/visual: the content itself is right up my alley. but the editing for this book was horrendous. all the text was blurry on my tablet device and on my laptop. every page had a "copyright" written on it, which makes sense of course, but it was over the text, making it basically unreadable. one thing (blurriness) or the other (the word 'copyright' written over it) made it extremely annoying to read (even though i really wanted to absorb everything).

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy

[Sarah Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lifelong swimmer, I was drawn to this title. There are some beautiful photographs, interesting facts, and informative pieces of history throughout. It definitely reads like a coffee table book and, while that is not an inherently bad thing, I was not finding myself aching to pick it back up. It is very pretty and you could flip through it absentmindedly or with full focus. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Lisa Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, of course I picked it up because I wanted to look at the pools, but I was surprised how much information there was and how interesting it was. There were pools from all kinds of places with all kinds of backgrounds, some of which I might not be able to get permission to see, but it made me wish I could do a trip around the world just to see them all.

[Kristen Barenthaler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never really thought about what a pool is…a contained space full of water if you’d pushed me for a definition. These amazing pools are full of life, stories, vibrancy, and so much more.

[Servabo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even swim (^_^;)))

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm. There is a lot of good in this book, but I do think that I was not expecting quite the history and architecture lesson that I got. I went into this book expecting some really beautiful pools, and there are some stunning ones, but I felt like it missed the mark on the truly extraordinary visually. Is this a coffee table book? Probably not, because it just doesn't quite have the photographic wow factor you would expect from a cover of a suspended pool. That's not to say that the pools weren't all lovely, but they were more historically or architecturally important than visually impactful. There were a few pools towards the end that did capture some of the awe and shock that I was hoping for in reading this.

From a history and significant event perspective, a lot of the pools featured have some interesting back stories. Whether it's their location, their moment in history or their representation of an artist/architect's skill. And the text that accompanies the photos does a good job of capturing the information in an interesting way.

All in all, if you are looking for a book about the design of pools and some of the history behind pools around the world, this is a good read.. If you are looking more for a book to thumb through and look at some stunning pools, probably not the right fit for you. I will say that the thing I liked bast was that every pool was listed in the back along with their locations so you could technically do a tour of the public pools featured.

* I received an ARC via NetGalley