The blue lagoon

commercial_outdoor_design/2008_04_01/blue1_thumb.jpg - The turquoise blue lagoon has transformed the area of the Chilean resort. \n\n\n\ncommercial_ou

Unable to find a large enough supply of water to support a resort development in Chile, businessman and biochemist Fernando Fischmann decided to create his own lagoon.

In a region where the biggest and the best is almost a byword for good design, it comes as no surprise that Crystal Lagoon's record breaking supersize swimming pool creation has captured the imagination of developers in the region.

The firm has yet to confirm a deal in the Middle East, but according to its website, is in the preliminary stage of projects in Dubai (The Arabian Canal, Limitless, and The World Islands, Nakheel), and Egypt (Soma City, Hurghada, Egypt).

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Fernando Fischmann, creator of the technology behind the lagoon, first came to the world's attention in 2007 when his initial project, a one kilometre long lagoon on the Chilean resort of San Alfonso del Mar, was officially certified as the world's largest swimming pool by the Guinness Book of Records.

 

Covering eight hectares in surface area, the lagoon contains a vast body of water - 2.5 million litres of water, equivalent to 6,000 standard swimming pools. It is turquoise in colour and transparent to up to 30 metres.

Fischmann came up with the idea of developing the lagoon, he tells Commercial Outdoor Design, after purchasing 90 hectares of land at San Alfonso del Mar, which is approximately 110 kilometres west of the capital Santiago.

He intended to transform the land into a holiday resort, but found his plans thwarted by the natural habitat of the location, in particular the seawater, which was choppy and too cold for bathing.

"I needed to find a way to build a project that would be competitive in the market and decided that building a lagoon with beaches inside would be a solution to this problem," he explains.

The problem was finding a supply of water that was large enough for all guests to use and of high enough quality for it to be used for bathing and water sports.

"I travelled all over the world to find a technology that could solve this problem of having a huge volume of water in crystal clear condition and I couldn't find it," he says.

Being an entrepreneurial sort, Fischmann decided to solve the problem by developing the technology himself.
 

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