At this year”s International Garden Fesival, designer Mathieu Lehanneur created a strikingly realistic rippling pool out of sculpted marble.

Measuring 7.5 meters in length, it was designed using 3D software and made of a single piece of hand-polished green marble. The artist’s aim was to create with carved marble a ‘magic portal’ that invites visitor to dive into it. The result is certainly inviting and of course surprising given that the liquid, fluid looking surface is actually crafted from one of the most solid materials one could imagine.

The project references the Loire River, which flows deep beneath the couryard of the Domaine de Chaumont-su-Loire Centre D”Arts et de Nature, where this artwork is currently installed

This work is part of Lahanneur’s Liquid Marble series, which made its first debut at Milan Design Week 2013 with a pool of dark rippling waves carved out of black marble.

Some of this designer’s other material inspired works include Clover Street Furniture, a project installed in Paris last year using digital machining to blend different types of wood in to giant stems.

If you want to ‘dive into’ this design in person, The Petite Loire Installation will be on show in France until the 2nd of November 2016.