Finnish architects OOPEAA have won a competition to design and create floating sea pools for public use in coastal cities and towns around the world, with the first to be rolled out in Oulu in the north of Finland. Following a pilot project in Helsinki in 2016, city development and investment group Töölö Urban ran the competition in April 2018 to commission a firm to design the Allas Sea Pools.

One of Copenhagen’s most popular parks will be filled with sunken pools and water-purifying plants to ease the risk and impact of flooding and to create a public space with a difference. Architecture studio SLA have won the ‘Cloudburst and Culture’ competition to design the DKK140m (US$21m, €18.8m, £15.6m) project for Hans Tavsens Park in the Nørrebro neighbourhood. Once complete, the park’s basins will cover over 85,000sq m (915,000sq ft)

Viceroy is set to open a resort and residences in Bocas del Toro, Panama, with dramatic overwater villas and three miles of private white sand beaches. Due to open in 2019, the Viceroy Bocas del Toro will also include a spa featuring private rejuvenation pools tucked in blossoming pockets of the rainforest. The 42 overwater villas will each have their own private plunge pool and direct access to the ocean

Four Seasons is planning a new luxury resort in Napa Valley, California, that will include a spa using the natural geothermal waters unique to the Calistoga region. Owned by Boston-based real estate private equity firm Alcion Ventures and developed in partnership with Colorado-based boutique firm Bald Mountain Development, the Napa Valley resort will include 85 guest rooms and 20 private residence villas. Designed by O’Bryan Partnership Architects, with interior design

The Italian design team behind the world’s deepest thermal pool have told CLAD that the concept could go global in the near future. Emanuele Boaretto made history last year when he opened a 40m pool, named Y-40, at his Hotel Millepini resort in Padova, north Italy. Equivalent in height to nine double decker buses, the pool incorporates four caves for technical underwater diving and a transparent viewing tunnel. Nicknamed The

A luxury tented resort will join Nayara Hotels, the Costa Rican wellness brand set in the rainforests of Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano National Park. Nayara Tented Resort will include 24 tented lodges, each 954sq ft (88sq m), with a master bedroom and en-suite bathroom, along with an adjoining tent that can be arranged as a second bedroom or lounge. Each tent will sit on its own platform, furnished with an

The five-star Keemala resort, which will open in Phuket in October 2015, has been designed using storytelling to create its own folklore. The designers have created a fictitious tale of ancient Phuket settlers from four different clans to underpin the design. The development will include 38 cottages, tent villas, “bird's nest” villas, and seemingly suspended treehouse villas – all with private pools. Owned and operated by the Somnam family and

Image: Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock with pupils from Sydenham School at the reopened pool Forest Hill Pools leisure centre in Lewisham, South London has reopened following an £8.9m redevelopment of its facilities. Designed by Roberts Limbrick Architects and built by Willmott Dixon, the venue is owned by Lewisham Council and operated by Fusion Lifestyle. The improved facilities at the centre now include a 25m swimming pool with spectator

The construction of a new multi-million pound leisure centre in south London has reached its latest milestone after contractor Willmott Dixon topped out the building in late October. Roberts Limbrick Architects have designed the new Forest Hill venue, which will be owned by Lewisham Council and operated by Fusion Lifestyle when it is unveiled in late 2012. Facilities are to feature a 25m swimming pool; a 16.7m learner pool; a