Tag Archives: floating

The world’s first floating city designed by BIG & backed by UN can withstand Category 5 hurricans!

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OCEANIX, an ambitious floating architecture concept envisioned to be built off the South Korean coast by BIG – Bjarke Ingel‘s design group. It was first revealed in 2019 and now has received the green light from UN-Habitat and the Metropolitan City of Busan to begin construction. The futuristic sustainable city can also withstand category 5 hurricanes!

Given the rising sea levels, fast growing coastal cities have resorted to expanding into the ocean by creating new land using sand which causes harm to the existing marine ecosystem only to be partially submerged a few years later. BIG came up with a better solution with OCEANIX as it introduces a modular design system with net-zero energy that allows people to live sustainably and safely. The cities are made up of 2-hectare, 300-resident neighborhoods which then connect to form 1,650-person villages including systems like underwater farming and greenhouses to make it as self-sufficient as possible!

“Sustainable floating cities are a part of the arsenal of climate adaptation strategies available to us. Instead of fighting with water, let us learn to live in harmony with it. We look forward to developing climate adaptation and nature-based solutions through the floating city concept, and Busan is the ideal choice to deploy the prototype,” said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN-Habitat Executive Director.

Inhabitants can easily walk around or take a boat to navigate between the floating communities which will include residences as well as a public square, art installations, marketplaces, sports clubs, schools, and more. It is also designed to be able to withstand natural disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes. All structures will be under seven stories in height to create a low center of gravity, and platforms are built of locally sourced materials like fast-growing bamboo that has six times the tensile strength of steel, a negative carbon footprint, and can be grown in the neighborhoods themselves!

“9 out of 10 of the world’s largest cities will be exposed to rising seas by 2050. The sea is our fate – It may also be our future,” said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels who has time an again pushed the boundaries of architecture and design by bringing impossible concepts to life. OCEANIX is trailblazing a new industry with blue technologies that meet humanity’s shelter, energy, water and food needs without killing marine ecosystems. It is made to grow, adapt and tranform organically over time with humans and the climate while balancing the needs of both!

Designer: BIG

The post The world’s first floating city designed by BIG & backed by UN can withstand Category 5 hurricans! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This floating farm turns salty seawater into nutrients for agriculture & improves marine environment!

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A Japanese start-up has designed this floating marine farm called Green Ocean using agricultural technology that cultivates seawater as a direct nutrient source! The innovative structure combines salt-resistant technology and sea-friendly architecture to the world a potential solution for the climate change-induced rising sea level problem which comes with heavy salt damage. It harvests rainwater, improves the quality of the water around it, helps with food production while saving water and being a sustainable architectural structure.

Sea level rise is getting progressively worse due to climate change which affects agriculture heavily – it means less land to farm on and also damage to coastal land because of excessive salt. N-ark has developed Green Ocean in partnership with Cultivera which is an agrotechnology R&D company that aims to build the prototype of the floating marine farm by 2022. Seawater agriculture is a special cultivation method that absorbs water and nutrients in the ground and air by mixing and neutralizing alkaline seawater and acidic rainwater. As a result, a huge variety of vegetables can be grown by utilizing the minerals and nutrients contained in seawater!

Green Ocean is a floating, solar-powered, salt-resistant greenhouse constructed with thinned wood and carbon joints. Once it is out on the water, the marine farm will create two new green areas – one will be a food production space that floats on the surface and uses salty agricultural technology and the second will be a layer of algae that will improve the underwater environment. It has a distinctive angular roof that helps to collect rainwater which is then mixed with seawater and used as fertilizer for the plants. Cold seawater is also used for air conditioning within the farms. “By creating a cyclical system environment, Green Ocean plays the role of an adhesive plaster of the Earth,” explains the team.

The basic technology behind seawater agriculture is ‘moisture culture’ which allows cultivation under humidity control. With this method, about 15 cm of the surface layer of natural soil can be reproduced with a special fiber of approximately 5 mm, and vegetables with fortified sugar content and vitamins can be grown by evaporating water with the special fiber by applying water depletion stress to plants. Moisture culture uses one-tenth of the water that is needed in conventional irrigated farming methods and can be applied even in areas where water is not abundant making it a sustainable way to farm at scale.

Designer: N-Ark

The post This floating farm turns salty seawater into nutrients for agriculture & improves marine environment! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sony’s futuristic floating habitat shows what homes could look like in 2050!

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In 2050, it is said that there will be more “climate refugees” who have lost their homes due to the impact of climate change, as well as emigrants who have been forced to leave their countries due to political problems. There may also come a time in the future when people live in floating mobile houses that drift across the world’s oceans. These groups of people could become like sea nomads, forming a unique ecosystem in which they coexist with the natural environment.

When people from a wide range of cultural spheres are living on the ocean, how do people coexist with other people or with the environment? This design prototyping examines people’s life at sea in 2050 and the ecosystem they create from the perspective of housing.

People who live on water inhabit floating mobile houses that can travel freely on the sea, depending on the weather, ebb and flow of tides, and time of the day. They may move in search of food to a place where there is a school of fish, and they may also connect with houses of different “sea cities” to interact with people with different cultures and values. People’s mobile lifestyle will make urban ecosystems more fluid.

2050

Floating mobile houses are housing for use at sea, equipped with an engine with a cleaning filter, sail, and stabilizers in the living space. The variable roof can be folded up in a storm to avoid the wind and erected to use the wind as a power source when traveling. The two-story structure is divided into a public space above the water and a private space underwater.

The house uses solar panels for some of its materials and produces the electricity used by the inhabitants. The electricity generated is stored in an energy tank containing water as thermal energy, which can be retrieved as electricity when needed. For houses that need more electricity, an energy tank can be autonomously connected to supply energy.

Designer: Sony

2050

This floating mobile campus is 100% self-sufficient & facilitates programs for our sustainable future!

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Manhattan is an island but also one of the world’s most popular cities. The land area is not large enough to support all the people who move there or have facilities for multiple recreational activities. Keeping in mind that the population and our needs continue to increase but the land doesn’t, 3deluxe designed We The Planet Campus (WTP) – a mobile, floating green platform off the Manhattan shoreline for convening international summits, workshops, and educational programs which focus on transforming our world for a better future!

The fluid, organic form of the island was inspired by the natural elements surrounding it -water, sun, and wind, meanwhile, the biotope is also designed to give back as much as it takes from nature by generating its own energy and drinking water. The floating campus was commissioned by the New York-based organization ‘We The Planet’ (WTP). The campus is meant to be a communicative platform that facilitates the work for protecting all life on land and under the sea. It will host international conventions, global summits, workshops, and educational programs that focus on co-existing sustainably and preserving our planet. WTP’s vision for the campus is to make it 100% self-sufficient in generating energy and drinking water while floating marshland biotopes make up 50% of the overall surface areas.

WTP’s campus is an inspiring architectural creation that nurtures and encourages those working towards building more people-friendly structures that live in harmony with their surroundings instead of the current parasitic nature of the situation. There will be a new generation of corporate buildings that offer more than the functional shell of a building by taking a stance on relevant social issues such as climate protection and nature conservation by actually providing space for those who are working towards solving these problems. “After the shock of the pandemic and the social polarization of recent years, there is a longing for positive change. It is time for architecture and urbanism to take a more ambitious approach to humanize our living environment,” says Dieter Brell, Creative Director of 3deluxe.

The campus sits on a floating platform that is scalable, mobile, and protected from rising sea levels. Its floating natural biotope provides greenery and organically extends the tightly packed land area of the city. The partly public platform not only represents an additional destination for New Yorkers for sports, leisure, and communication but also an attractive new honeypot for western Manhattan. The campus also includes a meadow, a sand biotope, and the thatched green roofs which create living environments for a diversified, urban animal and plant world apart from the marshland biotape. The construction materials include wood, clay, reeds, and recycled materials such as bioplastics.

WTP’s ambitious campus also plans to use latest surface technologies for air cleansing along with algae bioreactors, wind farms, photovoltaics, and marine power plants that will be located under the floating platform for energy extraction. We The Planet Campus wants to be a symbol of change in future architecture as it stands on the belief that buildings should give back as much as they take – this means compensation for soil sealing, CO2 production, the use of energy and materials, while creating fair living environments for the animals and plants who were there long before us.

Designer: 3deluxe

Floating office pods are the future of a truly flexible lifestyle and remote work!

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Forget waterfront offices, what about an office literally on the water? Think of Enclaves as office meets lazy river (productivity levels not included with the structure). Remote work and flexible lifestyle have seen a boom thanks to the pandemic which has led to a lot of innovative designs like this floating office pod which is a low-impact concept offering the best of views with maximum privacy for focus.

In the future, you will find Enclaves floating on the Vistula River with the Wawel Castle as the backdrop. Designer Agnieszka Białek who made this zen office pod is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Poland which explains the picturesque theme. Białek was inspired by her usual pandemic strolls (which were the highlight of all our lives) along the Vistula River and thought of how cool it would be to have floating co-working spaces that would have no footprint on the land. You will have to use a kayak to get to the pod which means effectively eliminating any disturbance people. The pods will be designed to be active day or night and can be rented by the hour to host meetings, change the scenery or just get into a deep focus zone!

The architectural structure has soft, curved edges and a contemporary look which is a contrast to the natural setting but still complements it. Since the pods are floating on the river, it reduces utility requirements to almost zero and there is no soil degradation. Enclaves look like bubbles on the river – the natural foam creates floating, geometric shapes that grew into a larger version for the project. Like lily pads, the pods are anchored to the river bed and also attached to each other like a network which makes it modular in nature. The pods can be 3D-printed within a few days using waterproof and recycled/recyclable materials to further reduce their environmental impact. It comes with built-in furnishings that create versatile spaces to suit everyone’s work personality and needs.

“It is still difficult to define the changes that [COVID-19] will make in architecture in the long run. We know for sure that we are facing a new reality. Remote work has become the norm for most companies and will continue for a long time to come. Consequently, employees will be able to choose the time and form of work. To a large extent, we will notice fatigue with the home space. We will gladly move the work zone from home to another place. The concept makes working remotely possible, becomes a comfortable place for online meetings, or relaxing in the new reality of reduced touch,” says Białek. Till we can get our own Enclaves, let’s continue with those daily walks.

Designer: Monolight Studio

The Float ‘N’ Grill, A Floating Propane Grill for Cooking on the Water

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The Float ‘N’ Grill is a portable propane grill that attaches to a flip-resistant buoyant plastic raft so you can grill out on the water and not set your deck or raft on fire. The unit is available in patriotic red or blue and can be found on Amazon (affiliate link). Mmmm, can you smell that? Smells like lake water and burnt meat.

The grill detaches from its raft for easy cleaning and storage, has a specially designed grease trap, includes three molded cup holders for resting cold beers and/or seasoning, and two tow hooks for keeping the grill in place on the water. Obviously, I’m going to tow mine behind my inner tube as I float down the river and over a waterfall.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, somebody goes and manufactures a floating grill. What will they think of next – a flying grill? Because that sounds incredibly dangerous and I must have one, how do I get on a waiting list?

[via The Green Head]

This house was designed to adapt to the rising sea levels!

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With the rising sea levels coastal communities are first in the line of fire (or should I say water?). Architecture is adapting itself to be more energy efficient and sustainable, but what are we doing about adapting to the changing climate and the disasters they bring? Vietnam-based firm H&P Architects designed and constructed an adaptable (and floating if need be!) house that can be used as a prototype for various communities around the world.

The project is called HOUSE and translates into Human’s Optional USE. It is simple and created with minimal construction materials – a steel frame, wall, roofing options, and interior furnishings so it is just the essentials. The purpose of this design was to help resettle those who were in need of housing after being displaces, either due to disasters or other unfortunate events. What makes HOUSE unique is that it is adaptable as a structure – it can work on land, or on stilts where flooding is common, or simply float all together supported by barrels which make it buoyant. In fact, the frame of the house and the stilts also make it adaptable for mountainous terrain. The structure could be used as a multi-functional space to accommodate programs relating to education, healthcare, and community too, it is not limited to residential only.

Another unique detail is how the steel structure has been designed, it lets the owner add more floors if needed without that traditional construction work and cost. Being community centered, the materials used for the walls, roofs, and doors will be chosen based on the suitability of the region and climate so it can be locally sourced to fit the environment it is being built for. Additionally, H&P Architects will install rooftop solar panels which would produce twice as much electricity as required for common home appliances and the residual electricity be stored or traded to keep HOUSE energy efficient. The roof also has a sprinkler system to clean and cool it during hot summer days. The interiors are a blank canvas so it can be adapted for different needs but the prototype includes netted ceilings for a relaxed setting and to showcase the open plan’s potential.

Designer: H&P Architects

These pyramid-shaped Yacht communities are a millionaire’s social-distancing paradise

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As society faces unforeseen struggles, and with climate-change just around the corner, these floating communities give insight into a new sort of habitat that’s up to the challenge of rising sea levels and of social distancing. Meet the Waya, a set of pyramid-shaped floating buildings that become a community on water. Designed by Lazzarini Design Studio, the Waya mimics the structures of the Mayan civilization, with a heavy reliance on pyramid-shaped forms. This shape allows structures to have a lower center of gravity and be very stable, while giving you slanted walls that are perfect for mounting solar panels to harness energy.

The Waya aren’t homes or individual yachts, they’re societies with all the elements needed for sustenance. Smaller floating structures act as personal houses, while larger ones serve the purpose of hotels and community centers. The Wayaland floating community even has entertainment and recreational zones spanning gyms, cinemas, shops, floating beach clubs, as well as greenhouses for growing produce that helps feed the people on-board. The floating architectural units are made from fiberglass, carbon fiber, and steel, and even have large underwater spaces that help extend living/storage capabilities while allowing the Wayas to easily float upright on water. Smaller Wayas come with two floors (including an underwater floor) while larger ones can go up to 10 floors in height, accommodating a host of people. Commuting between individual Waya units and to-and-from land can be done via boats, which then dock into dedicated boat-garages, while larger Waya buildings even have the capacity for a helipad or two. Deliveries between land and the Waya communities can be fulfilled using drones. The communities have the ability to slowly migrate too, allowing them to detach from a coastline whenever needed and float to an isolated location. Solar panels on each Waya building help supply the community with enough power to sustain them for long periods of time.

Shifting to a water-based society may feel like a bit of a cop-out at tackling real-world problems like climate change or pandemics, but they definitely do something interesting. By making humans migrate to water, the Waya frees up land for nature to take over, while ensuring that humans are much more mindful of their habit of pumping garbage into oceans… after all, you wouldn’t want your luxurious yacht to be trapped in sludge, garbage, and floating plastic, would you? Moreover, they even help strictly isolate communities, and more importantly take humans off the electricity grid, making them much more reliant on renewable sources of energy. The Wayaland floating community exists as a concept, but Lazzarini Design is trying to crowdfund €350,000 ($382,000) to build the smallest, basic unit to prove the entire project’s overall feasibility. In return as perks, the studio is offering backers Wayaland passports and short stays at the community’s floating hotels once the project gets successfully executed by 2022.

Designer: Lazzarini Design