Infinity Pool in Porto Portugal
We started with this sketch. A clean line for the main pool. A second line for the buffer. One for flow. One for silence. No decoration. Just what was needed.
You walk through the house, and…
Nothing prepares you for what waits beyond the narrow corridor. A door. Then stone walls rising on all sides.
The garden appears – eight meters wide, trapped between heritage walls older than memory. And there, where logic says no pool could exist… water. Flat. Still. Infinite.
People pause. Not because it’s large – it isn’t. But because it feels like the medieval stones were built around this water, not the other way around.
But no. It wasn’t there. We made it appear.
It started with the impossible
How do you build infinity water when nothing enters except through doorways? No trucks. No cranes. No concrete mixers. Just hands, carrying fifteen tons piece by piece through Portuguese corridors.
We said yes before counting the doorways. Probably not wise. But something about those stone walls made us want to discover what they could hold.
The earth was shallow. We couldn’t dig – the heritage foundations wouldn’t allow it. We measured in millimeters. Three centimeters wrong meant losing the mirror effect entirely.
So we built upward instead. Let the water float on its concrete platform, level with the terrace, level with your steps.
Water that has always been here
The infinity edge runs the garden’s length – six point six meters of water falling into stone that looks centuries older than the pool itself. Your eye follows the flow and finds… nothing. It simply vanishes.
Stone cladding wraps the structure. Each piece selected, touched, tested. Some edges aren’t perfect. We left them that way. Perfection would have betrayed the medieval walls.
In the corner, a second body of water waits. Thirty centimeters deep. Children claim it before adults understand its purpose. A buffer. A reservoir. A place where small hands can float while parents swim in infinity above.
When night transforms stone into light
LED strips hidden in the overflow channel throw turquoise upward against heritage walls. The entire garden glows. Water becomes liquid light bouncing off stones that remember centuries.
Neighbors pause on their balconies. That first glimpse stops conversation mid-sentence.
The pergola overhead creates moving patterns throughout the day. Shadow and light dancing across water that seems to have no beginning, no end.
Engineering that disappears
Filtration runs in complete silence beneath the stone platform. Returns hidden below the waterline. The overflow falls in a thin veil – barely audible unless you listen for it. Like breath against ancient stone.
Equipment access happens through panels that match the heritage walls perfectly. Heat pump, surge tank, automated chemistry – all invisible from the water’s edge. All silent in the enclosed courtyard.
Temperature stays perfect year-round. The pool reaches swimming comfort even when Porto’s October air cools.
→ Infinity pool construction: technical details, layout tips, and long-term performance — a full guide for demanding clients.
The family discovered something
Before: dead space between walls. Too narrow. Too enclosed.
After: where three generations gather from April through October. Where children learn to swim while grandparents watch from shade. Where twenty-eight square meters hold infinite possibility.
Property values shifted in the neighborhood. Real estate agents mention “the hidden pool” when showing similar Portuguese homes.
chemistry – all invisible from the water’s edge. All silent in the enclosed courtyard.
Temperature stays perfect year-round. The pool reaches swimming comfort even when Porto’s October air cools.
What visitors remember
Before: dead space between walls. Too narrow. Too enclosed.
After: where three generations gather from April through October. Where children learn to swim while grandparents watch from shade. Where twenty-eight square meters hold infinite possibility.
Property values shifted in the neighborhood. Real estate agents mention “the hidden pool” when showing similar Portuguese homes.
chemistry – all invisible from the water’s edge. All silent in the enclosed courtyard.
Temperature stays perfect year-round. The pool reaches swimming comfort even when Porto’s October air cools.
This isn't perfection
Equipment needs more planning than usual. Stone maintenance requires specialist knowledge. The raised design limits diving depth.
But the pool does what water was meant to do in this space. Creates infinity where walls should create limits. Transforms forgotten garden into family sanctuary.
Sometimes impossible just needs patience. And hands. And the kind of design that lets water speak first.
The pool sits there now, quietly holding Portuguese sky. Catching light. Letting it flow. Repeating endlessly between stones that finally found their purpose.
Every challenging space holds a secret waiting to be discovered. Whatever constraints you’re facing – heritage walls, impossible access, or something we haven’t seen before – we’d be curious to explore what’s possible.
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