Tourists will assume we're obsessed. Locals, however, will probably shrug it off with a "fair enough" when the National Gallery of Victoria opens an indoor pool in its street-front glass gallery.
The 11-metre-long aquatic installation in the Design Gallery at NGV Australia in Federation Square from August until late summer marks the homecoming of Australia's 2016 entry to the Olympics of architecture, the Venice Biennale.
At just 30 centimetres deep, this pool is meant more as a place for deep reflection than actual swimming. While wading is encouraged and the show features stills and videos of impressive pools – Villa Marittima in St Andrews and Fitzroy Swimming Pool among them – the emphasis is on ideas.
The installation offers a refreshing approach to the impact architecture can have in this largely community-based typology, says NGV senior design curator Ewan McEoin.
"People assume architecture has to be about buildings," says McEoin. "They don't maybe realise that architects think about economic, social and cultural differences."
The multi-sensory installation of water, light, scent and sound, complete with wooden decking and pool lounge chairs, was originally conceived by Aileen Sage Architects (Isabelle Toland and Amelia Holliday) with Michelle Tabet, and presented by the Australian Institute of Architects.
Even in Venice – no stranger to water – the pool had a magnetic effect. More than 100,000 visitors dipped their toes in the water during the biennale.
Spatial constraints have meant reconfiguring the shape of the pool but just as in Venice this installation reinterprets the colours and signage of key public pools; "aqua profonda" sign at Fitzroy pool and bleacher colours from Moree's pool. Both were sites of local activism.
Olympic swimming champions Ian Thorpe and Shane Gould, environmentalist Tim Flannery, Indigenous art curator Hetti Perkins and musician Paul Kelly are among eight prominent Australians who share personal stories in an audio that reinforces the personal relationship Australians have with pools.
Bridging art and design, the installation abstracts the pool, asking us to reconsider its importance.
"The pool is something we take for granted," says McEoin. "An exhibition should delight people and provide an uplifting experience, but also provide a view into a thing that you hadn't thought of before.
The Pool: Architecture, Culture and Identity is at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from August 18 to February 2018.