The UP Experience, Oct 2012
Dutch-architect Koen Olthuis argues the future of some communities may be over water as climate change contributes to rising sea levels. The founder of architectural firm Waterstudio NL, Olthuis specialized in creating floating communities and cities. His UP Experience presentation, “A sustainable future on the waterfront,” elaborates on his plans and the potential need for buoyant buildings in the future.
Aujourd’hui Magazine, Thomas Leroy, Oct 2012
Alors que la montée des eaux due au réchauffement climatique préoccupe de plus en plus d’Etats, les structures artificielles flottantes offrent une solution crédible.
Nous sommes à court de possibilités, donc, nous les envisageons toutes. » Anote Tong, le président de Kiribati, un petit Etat insulaire niché au milieu du Pacifique, est engagé dans une course contre la montre. Dans cinquante ans, ses 33 îles seront les premières à être englouties par les océans.
Il y a un an, lors du Forum des îles du Pacifique, il a évoqué devant ses pairs une solution surprenante : si son atoll est voué à disparaître, pourquoi ne pas en construire un nouveau ? De nombreux pays sont dans une situation similaire, comme le Bangladesh ou les Pays-Bas. Menacés par la montée des eaux, ils sont aujourd’hui tentés par l’idée de construire des espaces habités sur l’océan.
Un territoire nomade
L’idée existe depuis longtemps. En témoignent les polders hollandais ou les terre-pleins, comme celui de l’aéroport de Kansai au Japon ou celui de Hong-Kong. « Le problème, c’est qu’il n’y a plus de place pour faire des polders », explique Jean-Marc Laurens, enseignant en architecture navale à l’Ensta-Paristech.
Quant aux terre-pleins, ils impliquent des eaux peu profondes et détériorent l’écosystème. Alors, pourquoi ne pas construire des villes flottantes, comme l’avait imaginé Jules Verne en 1895 dans L’Ile à l’Hélice ?
A petite échelle, la méthode fait ses preuves : à Paris, la piscine Joséphine-Baker flotte depuis 2006 sur la Seine. « C’est techniquement faisable, assure Jean-Marc Laurens. L’idée serait d’utiliser des flotteurs en acier et d’y poser une plate-forme. Ce système est déjà utilisé pour construire les plate-formes pétrolières. »
Pour faire les choses en grand, d’après l’ingénieur, « il faut compter deux années d’études pour concevoir une île qui accueillerait 5 000 personnes ». Ces perspectives enflamment l’imagination des bâtisseurs. L’architecte belge Vincent Callebaut a imaginé en 2008 Lilypad, un « territoire nomade 100 % autosuffisant » dont la forme rappelle un nénuphar et qui pourrait accueillir 50 000 personnes.
Avec ses 500 m de diamètre, ses 60 m de haut et autant sous l’eau, cet ovni marin produira sa propre énergie grâce aux hydroliennes qui parsèment sa coque, ses panneaux solaires et son lagon central qui récupère les eaux de pluie. Pour le réaliser, l’architecte s’appuie sur un énorme flotteur circulaire, lesté par le lagon central qui lui donnera sa stabilité. « Sur le papier, ça fonctionne. En pratique, 1/5 de la technologie n’est pas encore au point.»
Techniquement réalisable
De la science-fiction ? Pas du tout. « Nous attendons le feu vert des investisseurs pour construire deux prototypes de 150 m de diamètre, explique Vincent Callebaut. Nous espérons signer un contrat d’ici à 2015. »
Ses premiers Lilypads devraient embarquer pour la Chine et Abou Dhabi, là où l’enthousiasme pour ces projets est le plus grand. « En France, constate Vincent Callebaud, on nous dit que ce n’est pas possible en raison des changements de réglementations que cela entraînerait. Dans les pays émergents, la réponse est plutôt : ‘‘on commence quand ?’’ »
Plus que les Etats ou les villes, ce sont les investisseurs privés qui croient au concept. Au Japon, le Green Float reprend le principe d’une île-ville à la dérive avec des dimensions encore plus importantes. L’entreprise Shimizu prévoit d’en lancer la construction en 2025.
Ben Way, un jeune entrepreneur anglais qui vit à Los Angeles, veut créer une île artificielle de la taille de Manhattan, soit 60 km2 ! « On peut faire une île de n’importe quelle dimension, techniquement, c’est très faisable », explique-t-il.
Il peine néanmoins à trouver des financements. L’argent, c’est là que le bât blesse. A la fin des années 1990, le projet d’île-paquebot AZ de 400 m de l’architecte Jean-Philippe Zoppini, en collaboration avec Alstom, avait échoué surtout en raison de son coût, évalué à 2,5 milliards d’euros. Lilypad coûte plutôt cher. « Nous avons évalué le coût du prototype à 10 000 euros le mètre carré », explique Vincent Callebaut. Soit 1,5 milliard d’euros l’ensemble !
« Ce sera vite amorti, promet-il, notamment parce que l’île produira elle-même son énergie. » Il faudra également résoudre l’obstacle juridique. Quel statut donner à une structure sans attache, qui pourrait naviguer ? Ben Way imagine son île comme « un moyen de créer une civilisation sans restrictions ».
Des projets d’îles-banques
Cette incertitude fait fantasmer les investisseurs. « Il y a eu des projets d’îles-banques qui se réfugieraient dans des mers sans régime fiscal », s’amuse Jean-Marc Laurens. A plus courte échéance, les Maldives auront leur première île flottante en 2014.
Conçue par l’architecte néerlandais Koen Olthuis, Greenstar accueillera des milliers de personnes. Doté d’un centre de conférences, cet hôtel en forme d’étoile verte réunira d’ailleurs les acteurs de la lutte contre le changement climatique, comme pour rappeler la raison première de son existence: la montée du niveau des océans. « On va être obligé de faire des îles artificielles, prévient Jean-Marc Laurens. L’avenir, c’est la mer. »
Thestar.com ,Debra Black, Aug 2012
A unique series of man-made floating islands – called the 5 Lagoons Project – will begin taking shape this fall around the Maldives, a series of almost 1,300 islands in the Indian Ocean. The floating islands are part of a joint project that many hope will be the solution to the impending environmental crisis the islands could face over the next 50 years.
Thanks to climate change and the forecast of increasing sea levels, the Maldives – which are now only one and a half metres above sea level — could one day be totally submerged. The project is a joint venture between the Maldivian government and Dutch Docklands, a Holland-based firm that specializes in building everything from floating prisons to floating conference and hotel complexes and homes. The 5 Lagoons Project — 80 million square feet — will include: a private islands project with $10 million villas; a floating 18-hole golf course with an undersea tunnel; a conference complex and hotel; 185 $1-million waterfront homes connected along a flower-shaped quay as well as a separate floating island with homes for residents of Malé, the country’s capital. The first phase of the $1-billion project will go on sale later this year with other parts of the development to be started over the next two to five years. Privately financed, the project is a joint venture between the Maldivian government and Dutch Docklands.
Paul Van de Camp, chief executive officer of Dutch Docklands, and his company worked for two years with the Maldivian government to come up with a plan. Key to the deal was allowing foreign ownership of the high-end villas that would be constructed. In exchange Van de Camp’s company would build a separate floating island with homes for the bulk of the country’s population. All of this will be done with an eye to protect the islands’ natural resources and environment, said Van de Camp. The floating islands will not hurt or touch the coral reefs and coral beds that surround the island nor the other marine life in the Indian Ocean that surrounds the Maldives. “The Maldives are the biggest marine protected environment in the world,” said Van de Camp in an interview with the Star during a short visit to Toronto. The government is very cautious about anything that could potentially harm the aquatic life, the environment and tourism. The floating islands will be anchored to the seabed using cables or telescopic mooring piles. They will be stable even in storms, the company says. One of the reasons designers decided to build lots of small islands was to lessen any shadow of the seabed because it could affect wildlife.
Van de Camp and his partner, architect Koen Olthuis, have plenty of experience when it comes to designing floating things. Since its inception a decade ago Dutch Docklands has built all kinds of floating islands and buildings in Holland, including a floating prison, a floating conference centre and thousands of floating homes. Until recently Van de Camp hadn’t thought of taking his vision abroad because he had so much work in Holland. “But because of the environment issue, we decided our expertise could be exported,” he said. “As Dutch people we know as nobody else knows the fight against water is a fight you’ll lose. Water is so strong you have to come up with different solutions.” With the Maldives project about to launch, Van de Camp is looking at other international possibilities. One such location could be Toronto which is ideally suited for a series of floating islands because of its location on the shores of Lake Ontario. Van de Camp suggests that a series of floating islands would give a different dimension to the city — a new footprint that abandons the idea that the only way a city can expand is to build towers. “We think cities shouldn’t always be looking backwards and creating highrise buildings. They should also look to the water to see if they could come up with solutions on the water that would give a better shape to the city.”
Mail Online, Mark Prigg, Aug 2012
For golfers who struggle to avoid the water hazards, it could be a challenging course. The Maldives has revealed plans for a radical £320m floating course, which players access by an undersea tunnel. The course is part of a massive plan to replace the sinking islands with a network of man made, floating islands. With an average elevation of just five feet above sea level the Maldives, with its 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean, is the lowest country in the world.
Amid fears many of the islands will soon sink into the sea, the Maldivian government has started a joint venture with the architectural firm Dutch Docklands International to build the world’s largest series of artificial floating-islands.The Dutch firm has already built floating islands for prisons and housing from slabs of concrete and polystyrene foam.
In the Maldives, the floating islands will be anchored to the seabed using cables or telescopic mooring piles, making landforms that are stable even in storms. The architects chose this approach to minimise damage to the seabed, and also chose to build lots of small islands to reduce the shadow on the seabed, which could affect wildlife. The islands will be constructed in India or the Middle east to reduce costs, then simply towed to their final destination in the Maldives.
The islands will also be designed for swimmers, divers and even private submarines to enter them from below, and the Dutch firm designing the scheme has said visitors will be able to rent private submarines that can surface right in the middle of their living rooms. The idea is the brainchild of Dutch firm Waterstudio who designed the project. It is being engineered by floating architecture specialists Dutch Docklands. CEO Paul van de Camp said: ‘We told the president of the Maldives we can transform you from climate refugees to climate innovators.
‘And we have a way of building and sustaining this project that is environmentally friendly too. ‘This is going to be an exclusively green development in a marine-protected area.’
The first part of the project to be built will be the golf course. ‘This will be the first and only floating golf course in the world – and it comes complete with spectacular ocean views on every hole,’ said van de Camp. ‘And then there’s the clubhouse. ‘You get in an elevator and go underwater to get to it. ‘It’s like being Captain Nemo down there.’
Designer Koen Olthuis said: ‘We’ll be building the islands somewhere else, probably in the Middle East or in India – that way there’s no environmental cost to the Maldives. ‘When it comes to the golf course, the islands will be floated into position first and then the grass will be seeded and the trees planted afterwards.’ Development on the course is expected to begin later this year, and it should be ready for play by the end of 2013 ahead of the full launch in 2015.
The proposed site is just a five-minute speedboat ride from the capital of Male, giving golfers the chance to make quick journeys to the mainland. Amazingly, the course will even be powered by solar energy which is a resource the Maldives has plenty of – as it’s located just north of the equator. The designers claim the entire resort will be carbon neutral.
The ambitious plans will also feature 43 private islands. Called Amillarah (the Maldivian word for Private Island). This unique project exists of 43 floating private Islands in a archipelago configuration. Each has its own jetty for yachts, along with a pool. Palm trees give each mini island its own secluded area.
FOX News, Aug 2012
Designers have revealed plans for a tourist paradise in the Maldives made up of floating islands that will include hotels, a convention center, a yacht club and a floating golf course.
The Daily Mail reports that the floating 18-hole state-of-the-art golf course and conference center complex will resemble a starfish from above and will be built within circular reefs where guests can dive right from the beach.
The futuristic designs are part of a massive plan to replace the sinking Maldives -which is made up of 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean – and includes an underwater club house and a system of tunnels that will connect a network of article islands.
The Dutch firm Waterstudio working with the architectural firm Dutch Docklands conceived of the plan to build the floating islands that will rise with the sea. The islands will reportedly be carbon neutral and will be attached to the sea floor with cables or mooring piles, so as not to disrupt the sea life.
Working with the Maldives government, the project involves over 80 million sq.ft of water of floating building and living space. In addition to a planned hotel and “workers islands,” the artificial chain will feature 43 private islands and rental submarines that can enter your living room from underneath, designers say.
The Daily Mail reports that the new islands will be built in India or the Middle East and towed south to be installed.
