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Epic layout photos showcase the vision for a floating water city in Maldives

By Scott Gleeson
Usa Today
2022.June.22

A Dutch architectural firm is poised to build an innovative floating city in the Maldives, a Southern Asia nation of islands located in the Indian Ocean.

The city, designed by Dutch firm Waterstudio, is slated to house 20,000 people in a web of 5,000 floating buildings, all of which will include homes, shops and even schools, according to the official website for Maldives Floating City. They’ll all be interspersed as a mass of modular floating platforms in the pattern of a brain coral.

The floating city will be located just 10 minutes by boat from Male, the capital of the Maldives. The project is headed by Waterstudio in collaboration with developer Dutch Docklands and the local government in Male. Koen Olthuis told CNN the city will feature studio apartments for $150,000 and family units for $250,000.

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“With its unique location in a paradisiacal setting, we are extremely proud to launch the first Floating City in the world,” said Paul HTM van de Camp, CEO of Dutch Docklands, in a news release. “This will be an amazing place where locals and foreigners can buy their dream property at affordable prices”

The designs of the floating city are aimed to offer a solution to the threat of rising sea levels for generations ahead, Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed said in a news release.

“This Maldives Floating City does not require any land reclamation, therefore has a minimal impact on the coral reefs. What’s more: giant, new reefs will be grown to act as water breakers. Our adaption to climate change mustn’t destroy nature but work with it, as the Maldives Floating City proposes. In the Maldives we cannot stop the waves, but we can rise with them.”

Below is a look at some of the epic images, provided to USA TODAY by Waterstudio.

An exterior look of the floating water city slated to be built in Maldives.
An exterior look of the floating water city slated to be built in Maldives.
WATERSTUDIO/DUTCH DOCKLANDS MALDIVES
An interior look at designs for the floating water city in Maldives.
An interior look at designs for the floating water city in Maldives.
WATERSTUDIO/DUTCH DOCKLANDS (MALDIVES)
A look at the town of a floating water city in Maldives.
A look at the town of a floating water city in Maldives.
WATERSTUDIO/DUTCH DOCKLANDS (MALDIVES)
The floating water city of Maldives up close.
The floating water city of Maldives up close.
WATERSTUDIO/DUTCH DOCKLANDS (MALDIVES)
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