The Pollachi Build
Bio Swim Pond with stream and cascade • Pollachi, Tamil Nadu • Completed July 2021
This is where Biosphere began. Before there was a studio, there was a farmhouse in Pollachi and a question its owner couldn't shake: why should my child learn to swim in chemicals? So he built his own - and kept rebuilding it. The pond went through several versions, starting in the COVID years, before it arrived at the form it holds today in July 2021. It remains the deepest swim pond Biosphere has built, and it carries two features that, as far as we know, had not been built in India before.
What was built
The swim zone runs 6.5 feet deep across a third of its area and 4.5 feet across the rest - deeper than any swim pond we've built since. A 60-foot stream connects the bog to the swim pond, carrying water down through planting.
Then the part that was new. The swim pond water overflows to a level below - and that overflow forms a large cascade, built as part of the same ecosystem rather than as a separate feature. The cascade is 8 feet wide, 8 feet tall, and 15 feet long, stepping down through multiple drops before ending in a pondless collection chamber. From there, the water is pumped back up to the bog, which sits a step above the swim zone, and the whole cycle begins again.
An overflow-fed cascade integrated into a swimming pond's own water cycle was, at the time, a first in India. So was a swim pond at this depth.
What happened next
The water cleared on its own. Dragonflies arrived without being invited. The pond has held its biology through every season since, with no chemical intervention at any point. The founder's son learned to swim in it - the original brief, and still the one that means the most.
The cascade and stream have aged into the landscape the way water features are meant to. It is the version of itself that all our later projects work toward.
Project Notes
Product
Bio Swim Pond with integrated stream and cascade
Location
Pollachi, Tamil Nadu
Scale
1,600 sq ft
Depth
6.5 ft (one-third), 4.5 ft (rest) - our deepest
Stream
60 ft, bog to swim pond
Cascade
8 ft x 8 ft x 15 ft, overflow-fed
Completed
July 2021
Status
Operating without chemical intervention since handover
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