Milan’s first outdoor swimming pool, located in the Navigli area, the Argelati drew its water from a branch of the Naviglio Grande canal. Open since 1915 and disused for a long time, it was renovated in 1959 by architect Arrigo Arrighetti, who redesigned its paths, the surrounding wall and the two outdoor pools – originally there was a third for children – with rounded and sinuous shapes that suggested the cheerful and recreational character of the place.

Characterised by a somewhat lofty architectural language, typical of the period, with an elegant central building (no longer part of the complex) and two symmetrical lateral bodies used as changing rooms with tympanum façades punctuated by pilasters, the complex located in the Città Studi district had a rectangular pool of 4,000 square metres that was intended to accommodate 1,500 people, inside a vast park.

The Bagni Misteriosi, formerly the Caimi Bathing Centre – the space designed in the 1930s as part of a multifunctional centre with halls for fencing, boxing, neighbourhood organisations, a doctor’s office, a library, and to which the swimming pools designed by engineer Secchi were added in 1937 – after being closed in 2007, underwent consolidation, renovation and sanitation works that brought the original complex and the pools back to life. Of the two pools, now fully operational, the smaller one can be converted into an ice skating rink in winter.

The complex of thirty summer and winter residences designed by BBPR on a mountain spur overlooking the Adriatic Sea consisted of two buildings articulated around a green square, paths sloping down towards the beach below and a large belvedere with swimming pools that, from above, seemed to merge seamlessly with the blue sea.

The swimming pool – a constant element of Porcinai's private gardens – at Villa La Terrazza is characterised by its circle shape, inspired by Kandinsky's painting and Japanese gardens. The rectangular pool, situated in a green lawn and adorned with water lilies, i is decorated with 87 red marble stone wheels of various sizes that animate its rectilinear edges; the outline of the pool's edge is covered with green-coloured majolica scale mosaic.

Nestled amidst the imposing Dolomite peaks with their grandiose rock faces, the Alpin Panorama Hotel Hubertus seems to want to prove that touching the sky with one finger is possible: and even more so from the 25-metre-long panoramic swimming pool, heated year-round to 33°C, suspended 12 m above the valley and jutting out 17 m above, where contemplation of the Sublime is combined with a subtle high-altitude vertigo.

WOW is not only an exclamation of appreciation, in this case well deserved, but also an acronym that stands for 'Water-On-The-Water': this is the name of the Grand Hotel Tremezzo's swimming pool, a rectangular light-blue pool floating on the lake waters surrounding it, with a breathtaking view of the Grigne peaks in the background.

Inspired by the search for maximum continuity between architecture and nature, the thermal complex is a gigantic cube of glass, stone and wood with an enveloping and natural character: the absolute protagonist is water obtained from deep excavations in the gardens and perceived as a continuation of a natural flow between inside and outside, from the collection of twelve indoor pools of different temperatures and widths, to the other 13 outdoor pools lying in the vast park.

With a spectacular panoramic view and immersed in the estate's vast private park in the Balduina area, amidst maritime pines and the scents of the Mediterranean maquis, the open-air pool is an exclusive break to pamper oneself and reconcile with the world, perhaps sipping an aperitif by the poolside in the health of the Roman spirit (the most exclusive one, though).

The project, in spite of the stereotyped and anonymous image often associated with the structures of swimming facilities, is characterised as a strongly urban architecture designed to build relationships with the context, with rigorous and massive volumes clad in brown klinker cladding and cut by deep slits, flanked on the west side by three outdoor pools.

Where the human element meets nature: these free-access hyper-thermal pools gush forth from the spring at a temperature of 58°C and, thanks to the landscape context in which they are located and the powerful beneficial effects they provide, they are a paradise for those who eschew the somewhat snobbish ambience of the luxury resort and love to indulge in an intense sensory experience in the name of informality.