Watch This Deck Turn Into A Pool!

…and then back into a deck! And then into a pool again. I just keep pushing the button.

This slick wooden deck by Agor Creative Engineering lowers to reveal an entire swimming pool hiding underneath it.

How does it work? Magic.

Just kidding. It’s a water-based hydraulic system. But I prefer the idea that there’s an army of tiny little wizards underneath the deck casting spells. Let me live in my fantasy world!

The movable floor can also stop at different depths, meaning the same pool can go from a shallow splash area to a much deeper swimming pool. Personally, it makes no difference to me how deep the water is, so long as I can wear my floaties.

How Does a Disappearing Pool Work?

The really clever part is that this isn’t simply a pool with a lid that slides over it.

The floor of the swimming pool itself moves up and down.

Agor builds a structural platform inside the pool that can be raised until it reaches the surrounding deck level. Once fully raised, what was a swimming pool becomes a solid usable surface.

Push the button again and the floor descends into the water, gradually transforming the deck back into a swimming pool.

Agor uses a water-based hydraulic lifting system rather than a conventional oil-based hydraulic system. Underneath the decorative surface is a stainless-steel structure engineered to function in a permanently wet swimming-pool environment.

Basically, somebody looked at a swimming pool and asked, “Why does this giant hole in the backyard have to be a swimming pool all the time?”

Fair question.

Your Swimming Pool Can Become Part of Your Backyard

That’s probably the biggest advantage of the design.

A conventional swimming pool occupies the same chunk of real estate 24 hours a day, whether anyone is swimming or not.

With a movable pool floor, that space can potentially become a patio, entertaining area or additional backyard space whenever the pool isn’t being used.

That could be particularly useful in smaller yards where sacrificing several hundred square feet to a permanent pool isn’t ideal.

And because Agor’s systems are custom engineered, the visible surface doesn’t necessarily have to look like a pool cover. The company has built movable floors finished in materials including teak, Ipe wood, mosaic, porcelain and even reinforced glass.

When everything is raised, you could conceivably walk into the backyard without realizing there’s a swimming pool underneath your feet.

Which seems like an excellent opportunity to mess with your houseguests.

You Can Change the Depth of the Pool Too

The moving floor isn’t limited to two settings: pool and no pool.

It can be stopped at different heights.

Want relatively shallow water? Raise the floor.

Want deeper water for swimming? Lower it.

Agor has even developed systems capable of creating a sloped bottom so one end of the pool can be deeper than the other.

That gives one swimming pool considerably more flexibility than a traditional fixed-depth design.

The adjustable depth can also be useful when younger swimmers are using the pool, although obviously no mechanical pool system replaces proper adult supervision around water.

From Hidden Pools to Giant Lagoons
Agor’s disappearing pool shows how clever engineering can completely transform a backyard. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the biggest pool in the world uses ambitious engineering on a massive scale, creating a man-made lagoon measured in acres rather than feet.

It Also Becomes a Serious Pool Cover

When raised completely, the movable floor creates a rigid barrier over the water rather than leaving an open pool in the yard.

Agor says its systems can be locked in the raised position, providing another layer of security when the swimming pool isn’t supposed to be accessible.

And unlike the flimsy pool cover you might picture stretched across someone’s backyard pool for the winter, this is meant to become functional floor space.

Agor describes its stainless-steel movable floors as strong enough for recreational and social use.

So yes, you can theoretically have a pool party, push a button, make the pool disappear and continue having a party exactly where the pool used to be.

Just make sure everybody gets out first.

Who Makes This Shape-Shifting Pool?

Agor Engineering Enterprises was founded in Israel in 1990 by mechanical engineer Yoash Zolar.

Movable swimming-pool floors have since become one of the company’s primary specialties, with Agor designing, manufacturing and installing custom systems for private homes as well as hotels, clubs and other public facilities.

The company doesn’t only make floors that move vertically, either. Its pool engineering designs have included horizontally retractable floors, folding covers and custom systems for unusually shaped and large pools.

And apparently this technology isn’t necessarily limited to brand-new swimming pools. Agor says movable-floor systems can also be designed for some existing pools, although something tells me this isn’t a Saturday-afternoon Home Depot project.

Still, there’s something wonderfully excessive about transforming an ordinary backyard deck into a pool simply because you pushed a button.

Now excuse me while I push it again.

And again.

And one more time.

Feature Photo: Agor Engineering Enterprises / Youtube