Guests at New York City’s Ink48 Hotel can step down into a former rooftop swimming pool to dine surrounded by the gardens that grow many of the herbs and vegetables used in their meals. This cool project by Future Green Studio and Farming Up adapts the existing space in a surprising way, using recycled and sustainable materials.
The original tiled swimming pool steps lead to what is now a sunken dining area surrounded by raised garden beds. The new dining space is lined with sushi mat-inspired ipe wood decking salvaged from another project to form both the garden containers and benches along the former walls of the pool.
The restaurant’s chef worked with the designers to create a garden that makes ideal use of the space to add hyper-locally-grown herbs, lettuces and other veggies to the menu. But guests at the hotel aren’t totally giving up the luxury of a rooftop pool to enjoy this unusual dining space – there’s another pool on the 16th floor, overlooking the Hudson River and New York City skyline.

