Infrastructure protectionFloating cities increasingly attractive prospect in the face of sea level rise, floods

Rendering of one possible design for a floating city // Source: farfesh.com

In the past six months, articles in Business Insider, Bloomberg, and theGuardian, among others, have cited experts discussing this question: “Has the time come for floating cities?”

As Next City reports, in the face of climate change-related sea level rise and shifting weather patterns poised seriously to impact many cities over the course of the next decades, the option of having cities that can accommodate shifting tides is making more and more sense. Now, many designers are returning to the drawing boards and working out the logistics of how these new super-structures can help people around the world. Koen Olthuis, at his Waterstudio design center in Rijswijk, The Netherlands, is just one visionary who is attempting to design more flexible and resilient floating metropolises.

“Technically, this stuff is easy to engineer, we’re already there,” Olthuis said.

Echoing that, many governments are beginning to dip their toes into the water by expanding existing cities into rivers and oceans. Not only do these additions serve as a test run for the ideas that Waterstudio is trying to expand upon, but it is seen as a win-win by local officials given the fact that the expansion presents new commercial and real estate markets while also creating more room for residents.

Already, Huai’An, China has constructed a floating chemical plant; Hong Kong a floating cemetery; and London has commissioned a sea-bound theater. Other cities have focused on the less environmentally predictable delta regions in an effort to assist citizens affected by flooding. In Lagos, Nigeria, a floating school was constructed to provide space for roughly 100 students in the impoverished town of Makoko.

“I think the current generation of architects really wants to help, they want to make a difference. If you tell the story of one billion people living in slums in places like Thailand, India, Bangladesh — where water is threatening those people and no one is helping them because anything that gets built can be wiped out by the next tsunami — we think, well we have to help those people,” added Olthuis.

Now, foundations such as Cordaid, sponsored by Seimens, are developing the City Apps project which will design and build facilities for impoverished and flood damaged regions around the world using recycled floating shipping containers, with the aim of providing entrepreneurial opportunities to residents.

“I think we’ve only seen about 10 percent of the ideas that are actually possible in terms of floating architecture. In the next century, we’ll have thousands and thousands of new architects who can think about these possibilities” said Olthuis, “Today the momentum is there because we see the effects of climate change and we can’t be sure about our safety. We see millions of people moving to the cities and we don’t know where they will live. These issues are finally making people think twice about floating architecture.”