This Floating Plaza in the Amazon Is Climate Architecture at Work

Posted on 22/11/2025 by Ida Torres

Imagine a public square that literally rises and falls with the tide. That’s exactly what AquaPraça does, and it just made its grand debut at the UN Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil. This isn’t your typical architectural showpiece that exists only to look impressive at a summit. This 400-square-meter floating platform is designed to stay right where it is, becoming a permanent cultural hub in the heart of the Amazon.

Designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon, AquaPraça represents something genuinely clever in how we think about building in a world where water levels are no longer predictable. Moored on Guajará Bay within the Amazon River system, the structure uses Archimedes’ principle (yes, that ancient Greek buoyancy thing you learned in school) to naturally adapt to an environment where tides can shift up to four meters daily. The platform simply floats along with the water, letting visitors experience the natural rhythm of the river at eye level.

Designer: CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon

Carlo Ratti, who’s a professor at MIT and curated the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, explains the project’s deeper philosophy by referencing iconic architect Aldo Rossi. Where Rossi looked to the past to prove architecture could still enrich Venice’s skyline in 1980, AquaPraça looks to the future by exploring how we can build with nature instead of fighting against it. It’s a subtle but important shift in thinking.

The project’s journey is almost as interesting as the structure itself. It was first unveiled in Venice this past September during the Architecture Biennale in a simplified form, then traveled to Belém where it now serves as part of Italy’s pavilion at COP30. After the conference wraps up, Italy will donate the platform to Brazil, where it will function as a community space for ongoing conversations about climate, culture, and creative industries.

What makes AquaPraça particularly compelling is how it turns climate change from an abstract concept into something you can physically experience. The sloping surfaces and shifting levels respond to the water in real time, creating what Eric Höweler calls “a delicate equilibrium.” His collaborator J. Meejin Yoon points out that it’s both a literal and figurative platform for understanding sea level rise and its impacts on coastal communities worldwide.

The location couldn’t be more symbolic. Belém sits at the meeting point of the Amazon River system and the Atlantic Ocean, where freshwater and saltwater converge to create a powerful estuarine ecosystem. It’s the perfect setting for a structure designed to demonstrate adaptive architecture. The bay itself reveals its underwater landscape daily as tides recede, offering a constant reminder of nature’s cycles and changes.

Getting this thing built was no small feat. Italian construction company Cimolai completed the entire project in just five months, handling structural design, construction, and certification while integrating complex architectural and engineering requirements. That’s remarkably fast for a floating structure that needs to be both functional and safe in such a dynamic environment.

The project came together through an impressive international coalition, including Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, and support from organizations like Bloomberg Philanthropies, Costa Crociere, ENEL, and others. It’s the kind of collaboration that shows what’s possible when governments, private companies, and cultural institutions actually work together on climate solutions.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani described AquaPraça as a floating Italian square that evokes Venice while standing as a symbol of friendship between Italy and Brazil. But more than diplomatic niceties, it represents something tangible: the idea that architecture can be circular, with multiple lives and purposes over time. From Venice to Belém, and now as permanent infrastructure, the platform embodies continual reuse and reinvention.

For anyone interested in how design can respond to climate challenges without sacrificing beauty or function, AquaPraça offers a compelling model. It’s not just sitting there looking pretty (though it does that too). It’s hosting symposia, cultural programs, and serious discussions about climate policy, all while literally moving with the water that surrounds it. That’s architecture that doesn’t just talk about adaptation but actually demonstrates it, day after day, tide after tide.

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Floating sauna beside museum is accessible and sustainable

Posted on 26/06/2024 by Ida Torres

When visiting a museum that’s located next to a body of water, probably the next thing you think of after you’ve completed your tour is: “Hmmm, it would be nice to have a relaxing time at a sauna”. Well, that’s if you’re tired after going around the museum. If you visit the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, you will get the chance to do just that.

Designer: Estudio Herreros

Trosten is a floating sauna that you can find in the fjord next to the museum as both are designed by Estudio Herreros. The idea is to bring saunas closer to the people and make it sustainable and accessible as well. They were inspired by architectural follies but aside from it being aesthetic, the structure is still also highly functional but with a “distinct volume and silhouette with a strong, colorful component”.

The sauna’s main structure is actually constructed offsite and then placed on the prefabricated floating concrete platform. It’s made with aluminum cladding with a green tone to give off a calm and relaxing vibe, combining it with the usual wooden decking you see on saunas with large terrazzo tiled surfaces plus steel balustrades and netting. Outside there’s stepped seating so users can also sunbathe before or after using the sauna. Inside there are lockers and seating spaces and inside the sauna itself you get stepped wooden seating.

At the back, there’s also a sheltered seating space and you can access the fjord from here if you want to cool off. Since this is a sustainable structure, you get an energy system and a steam recirculation system and use of natural and recycled materials. It would be nice to heat up and cool off at something like this after a long day of exploring the museum and nearby places.

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AI-Generated Floating Glass Museum Is Intended To Be a Symbol Of Environmental Awareness & Sustainability

Posted on 10/04/2024 by Srishti Mitra

Dubbed the Floating Glass Museum, this mesmerizing and jaw-dropping structure by Luca Curci architects in collaboration with Giulia Tassi Design is something to give a nod to. Designers and architects from around the world, as well as AI were also used to design the fantastic building. It is proposed as a unique and innovative symbol of environment awareness and sustainability, “where the history of glass meets the contemporary experimentation”. While designing the structure, the international design team drew inspiration from the fine art of glass-blowing that has been practiced by Venetians for around 1500 years. They harnessed the amazing power of AI to build the floating exhibition, which looks fragile and yet extremely powerful at the same go.

Designer: Luca Curci Architects x Giulia Tassi Design

The setting of the museum is truly beautiful. As you look at it, you will be transported to another world, where the water on which it sits is reimagined as a canvas for artistic expression, while also sending an important message out to the world – the issue of climate change. “Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent,” reads the press release. “It is disrupting national economies, communities, and countries dearly today and even more tomorrow. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, weather events are becoming more extreme and greenhouse gas emissions are now at their highest levels in history.”

The AI-generated images and visuals showcase beautiful pastel-colored pieces of various sizes, ranging from hues of yellows, and oranges to pinks, offering viewers with an imagery that is bright, powerful, and almost frenetic. These loud pieces manage to create a space that is tranquil and almost meditative, while other pieces feature bright red and orange glass trees, and rather real-looking pink ones which establish a strong connection to the environment and nature. Other pieces seem to resemble massive chemistry sets!

The Floating Glass Museum is designed to represent a global environmental initiative, and it is created to be a space “where art, nature, and tradition converge: the balanced fusion of contemporary art and sustainable design that will invite contemplation, reflection and discovery” in the context of “cutting-edge design and a dedication to sustainability.”

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Floating architecture designs to light up Copenhagen, Maldives

Posted on 31/10/2023 by Ida Torres

Water-based architecture is not about boats, yachts, or ships, or at least not just about them. We’re seeing some designers experiment with bringing all kinds of floating structures that residents and tourists can enjoy while basking in breathtaking views. A Copenhagen-based studio is teaming up with the local municipality to bring these unique concepts to life and show different possibilities for this kind of architecture.

Designer: MAST

The first of three projects is a floating sauna and harbor bath where up to fifteen people will be able to have a relaxing time while looking at an aquatic view. They can even plunge directly into the harbor bath after sweating it up in the sauna. It uses eco-friendly materials like cross-laminated timber and wood fiber insulation. This floating sauna is also “portable” in a sense that it can be moved to different locations through a towboat. There is also a small changing room as well as storage facilities and a wooden deck with access to the harbor bath.

The Harbour Cliff is the first free-floating open bouldering gym in the world where visitors can swim to it and then try the different climbing routes within the structure. There are three slightly inverted ledges to do the different challenges, including a 14.8 foot climb where you need to do a particularly hard jump to be able to reach the final spot. It looks like something straight out of an alien invasion movie and I keep expecting a monster to emerge from the structure.

Lastly, if you don’t want to sweat it out in the sauna or do bouldering, you can head over to the Maldives to visit a floating villa. These villas are anchored in protected lagoon areas and have two bedrooms, bathrooms, a loving room, and even a courtyard garden and a roof terrace. As part of their eco-friendly design, they use solar cells, battery packs, on-board sewage treatment and watermakers.