Frog Princes Kissed by Biotop:

As every year, the voting for the Design Frog Princes 2019 took place in the course of the Partner Event in London. All 60 Partners in attendance were asked to choose their favourite projects among the twelve nominees in the categories Swimming Pond, Living Pool and Conversion & Refurbishment.
An independent expert jury consisting of six press representatives and one architect had previously selected the nominees from a total of 40 submitted projects.
The prizes were awarded during the gala evening.

WINNERS IN THE CATEGORY: LIVING POOL

1st place:

Munter Tuinprojecten
Realization of a city garden in Rotterdam.
The customer is a well-known indoor architect from Rotterdam. After consultations with several landscapers, Munter Tuinprojecten was chosen to execute the project. The client’s wish was to equip their relatively small garden area with a swimming pool as well as an outdoor area with a fireplace. The requirement in regard to the swimming pool was that the facility’s design should not be too traditional. Even more importantly, no chlorine filter should be included for reasons of sustainability. Biotop Partner Munter Tuinprojecten thus opted for a Living Pool. The challenge was to create a round but nevertheless solid and durable pool, and a basin with a diameter of 6.5 metres made of HDPE was therefore manufactured. The result is intriguing and attracted much attention from the Netherlands architectural scene.

2nd place:

Natural Swimming Pools Ltd
Complete pool build and landscaping of an old farmyard site.
The Pool is heated by an air source heat pump and covered. The downhill edge of the pool was raised slightly above ground level to provide the feeling of infinity edge and make the most of the view of the valley. The generous decked area covers the service pit and is likewise orientated towards the view. The garden was landscaped in keeping with the rural setting, with typical Cornish retaining walls.

3rd place:

Hortien der Gartendoktor
This project is Hortien’s showroom Living Pool, and it was designed specifically around the rough natural stones. The aim of the concept is to loosen up and dissipate the stern shapes of a pool through the design of its surroundings. A staircase of antique granite steps and slabs leads down to the pool and continues within it.
The covered terrace provides pleasant shade during the day, and during cool evenings one can sit by the fireplace and watch the sunset reflecting in the water.

4th place:

Geonet bvba
This living pool was built in an urban garden in Antwerp, Belgium. It is a prefabricated monopool made of polyester with a polycarbonate rolling cover and LED lighting.
A pool house with a jacuzzi was also added, and the pool is equipped with a counter-current system and heat pump. The polyester monopool makes maintenance easy: The water remains crystal clear and the walls can be kept clean with a minimum of care.
The floral beauty of the urban garden surrounds the pool elegantly, softening the crisp lines of the basin and paving stones. The thick edging stones made of Belgian blue limestone are rounded off where they meet the water. Swimming pleasure is guaranteed in this pool.

WINNERS IN THE CATEGORY: SWIMMING POND

1st place:

T & P Teich und Pool GmbH
A true paradise was created here on one of the Maldive Islands in the midst of the Indian Ocean. The Austrian client owns a Swimming Pond back home and wanted to realize one on the Maldives as well. The idea of swimming in a tropical lake had captivated him, and Partner T & P thus proceeded to construct the first natural sweet-water swimming facility on the Maldives. The excavation and basin creation were undertaken by the construction company building the hotel, while the filter components were shipped to Indonesia and preassembled there. Three senior T & P technicians spent four weeks on the Maldives to line the pool, adapt the filter system and supervise the creation of the regeneration zones.
It’s a Swimming Pond dream come true at Dreamland – The Unique Sea & Lake Resort Spa.

2nd place:

Fresner Garten und Landschaftsbau GmbH
Starting at the fair-faced concrete overflow basin, the view extends across the 300 m² lake to the reading room in the wooden cabin. Water flows into the lake like a curtain. Enjoying a cup of coffee on the raised terrace, one can see not only the wooden deck reaching to the pond but also the raft used for paddling on the lake. Sitting on the raft itself in the middle of the lake provides an entirely new perspective. A particularly beautiful location is under the spectacular willow, from where one can enjoy the view of the patio and house. While strolling around the lake’s perimeter, one can also traverse the filter area using the “floating stones”. This is the best point of view to appreciate the grand dimensions of the facility with a length of more than 25 metres.

3rd place:

Fuchs baut Gärten GmbH
Pleasant Workplace – Green Calling Card.
The company garden of a chemical enterprise in Geretsried, Bavaria was created with a different premise. In this case, the goal was to increase the employees’ wellbeing and cultivate the firm’s image. The pond was to serve as a meeting and relaxing point for the staff while also pleasing the tastes of visiting international customers. (see article in GARTENDESIGN INSPIRATION, issue 1/2019)
The Swimming Pond uses the wall construction method combined with a granite grey liner.
Two curved-screen skimmers, a Combi-Box V100 and a bio compact filter V100 were installed.

4th place:

Water Artisans
A formally designed, yet exciting Swimming Pond on the terrace of a new home designed by British landscape designer Dana Assinder in association with TFQ Architects. Originally a project for Biotop Partner Kingcombe Aquacare with Ben Garner, the facility was subsequently completed by Ben and his team at Water Artisans.
The concrete construction and tiling were provided by the client’s team, the equipment design, pumps, filtration, piping, equalising tank, planting, control and commissioning by Kingcombe/Water Artisans. The pond features an infinity edge with equalising tank and bespoke overflow grilles.
The filter box was adapted to a pump feed/gravity return system. The pond provides a focal point on the terrace and is an integral part of the overall architectural impression offered by the property.

WINNERS IN THE CATEGORY: CONVERSION & REFURBISHMENT

1st place:

My Garden sarl
Partner My Garden was called in to help a garden owner who had been abandoned by his landscaper in the middle of the construction of his new garden with swimming pond. What the Partner company encountered on site were a torn-up garden, a half-completed swimming pond and a very frustrated homeowner.
So they rolled up their sleeves and “dug in” to this interrupted garden project. The original attempt at a pond could unfortunately not be saved; it had to be cleared out completely and converted into a Biotop Swimming Pond. The My Garden specialists then proceeded to beautify the remainder of the garden, and after a few weeks they were able to finally complete the client’s “dream garden with Swimming Pond”.

2nd place:

freiraum* Gartenarchitektur GmbH
freiraum* were the third company to attempt to resolve the problems with this biologically filtered swimming pool at a traditional Austrian square-courtyard farmstead.
The non-functioning natural pool built by a competitor was converted into a Living Pool with heating, under-deck rolling cover and lighting. Now there is finally nothing standing between the clients and their low-maintenance swimming pleasure. The careful adaptation of the existing building fabric preserved the rural atmosphere (even retaining the creek flowing in a separate section of the garden) while still allowing a state-of-the-art biologically cleaning Living Pool to be implemented.

3rd place:

Roth Gärtner von Eden GmbH
A Biotop Swimming Pond was converted into a Biotop Living Pool. The Swimming Pond was suffering from high phosphate levels for unknown reasons and was thus full of algae. In coordination with the client, the Partner company therefore decided to convert it into a Living Pool—which has been crystal-clear since conversion, leaving the clients very pleased.

4th place:

Fuchs baut Gärten GmbH
A roughly 20-year-old pond was converted into a Swimming Pond. The requirement was to maintain the location and shape of the old pond as much as possible so as to alter the overall appearance of the garden no more than necessary. The goal was to create a Swimming Pond offering enough length and depth for swimming and diving on the one hand as well as a shallower area with steps leading into the deeper swimming section on the other. The two sitting areas (a wooden deck on the one side and a stone terrace on the other) create two separate spaces that allow the Swimming Pond to be used from both sides. A further access point is the “diving rock” (a large slab of rock at the edge of the swimming area from which one can dive into the deep water).