One might say that after more than 5000 years of history, pools showed every trick they’ve got up their sleeves. Seriously, in how many different ways can you dig a hole in the ground and fill it with water? The answer is, more than you can think of because every time we declare pools a finished story, something interesting pops up on the horizon. Let’s take a look at some of the design trends that will shake up the world in 2017.

Natural Pools

Pools have gone full circle, coming back to their humble beginnings. Natural pools are simple, eco-friendly, affordable, easy to make and nothing short of brilliant. Essentially, natural pools are nothing else than glorified ponds that employ an ecosystem of pond plants to keep the water clean. Their simple concept, free form, affordable price, and absence of cleaning chemicals grant them a very shining future, so expect to see them a lot in 2017.

Fire Elements

Fire and water are two opposing elements. If you combine them, you’re ought to end up with an exciting result. Light up fire pits and torches. Although very simple in nature, both of these fiery design elements pack a lot of feral personality, which they’re more than willing to share with your pool setup. Hence their enduring popularity. Whoever wants to pursue a tropical, jungle, natural or any other look that employs tribal elements, doesn’t have to look beyond these two.

Technology Integration

Technology is affecting all aspects of our lives. These days, the Internet of Things has finally reached pools as well. That opens up a whole slew of new possibilities pool designers won’t miss a chance to exploit. Expect to see more and more pools packed with automated and internet-ready lighting, water temperature control, cleaning and pump systems. Telling your pool to prepare the water while you are driving back from work does sound awfully convenient.

Knife Edges

As time went by, pool edges were becoming thinner and thinner. Knife edges are probably the thinnest they can get before completely disappearing. This stunning example of eye-candy is made possible by tiny boarder slots that allow water to spill in. That water is later recycled through the filtration system and pumped back into the pool. As a result, the pool’s surface becomes smooth and mirror-like, while its boarders almost completely disappear, which creates very surreal visual effect.

Plunge Pools

Not every yard can accommodate a huge pool. With the cities becoming more densely populated, opportunities for making such pools will become even rarer than today. This may be the prime mover behind the rising popularity of plunge pools. Usually, a swimming pool puts more accent on its depth rather than its length and width while still allowing its owners a lot of freedom of movement. However, with homemade saunas becoming a very common home addition, plunge pools can expect a very bright future as post sauna cold water baths.

Eco-Friendly Sanitation Systems

We’ve already mentioned that natural pools gained much popularity as an eco-friendly, non-chlorine alternative to traditional pools. Yet, not everyone’s willing to bath in a pond. Ozone and UV sanitation systems strike the perfect balance between being heavily reliant on chlorine and going completely natural. Although they don’t eliminate all chlorine out of the equation, they do significantly reduce the amount you have to use to keep the pool clean. Because of such pragmatic nature, these sanitation systems will become very popular among the people whose hearts are not completely on the green side.

As we can see, there is a lot of interesting things going on in the world of pools. As technology becomes more affordable, pool trends continue to evolve. We’re very excited to see what next few years have in store for us.