Plunge 5.0 Self-cleaning Saltwater Pool with Port Holes, Richmond VIC

The brief

A freestanding plunge pool with windows — not a box you look at the side of.

Site conditions meant the pool could only be installed freestanding. The clients didn’t want to look at the wall of a pool from inside the kitchen. Glass port holes were the answer: water becomes part of the daily view, not a blank surface.

Placing the port holes

Engineered to fit between the structural ribs — while still looking visually balanced from the courtyard.

The freestanding pool relies on engineered structural support ribs that are non-negotiable. The port holes had to slot between them — but also had to look balanced from the courtyard, not offset. We designed the layout with the client to hit both goals at once: structurally sound, visually centred.

Through the kitchen on a custom trolley

Inner-city Richmond meant no crane access — the pool was wheeled through the house on a purpose-built trolley.

Trams, clearways, council permits, tight space, existing house. None of our standard small cranes would fit. We used two small gantry cranes and a custom-built trolley to wheel the pool shell through the kitchen area into final position. Commercial-grade logistics on a residential job.

Self-cleaning — non-negotiable

A pool on permanent show from the kitchen has to be clean 24/7 — the client said it had to be self-cleaning.

The Vantage in-floor system runs on a timer, sweeping debris to the main drain without anyone lifting a finger. As the client put it: “We wish our kitchen bench was self-cleaning like the pool.” When the pool is visible from inside the house every meal, that’s the standard it needs to meet.