floating-city Archives

Drijvende woonwijken in ondergelopen polders, deze architect ziet het al voor zich

By Marc Doodeman
Cobouw
2023.October.02

Op de Malediven werkt architect Koen Olthuis aan de bouw van een drijvende stad. In Nederland kan zoiets ook, denkt hij: in havens en polders.

En óf hij gedreven is. “Anders houd je het niet twintig jaar vol.” Architect Koen Olthuis zit in zijn kantoor in Rijswijk aan een kleurige glazen tafel voor een stapeltje lege A4’tjes en een pen, die hij tijdens het gesprek veelvuldig zal gebruiken om zijn woorden kracht bij te zetten. Hij doet al tien jaar niets anders dan drijvend bouwen, zegt hij. Al wil hij het zo eigenlijk niet noemen. “Het woord drijvend komt mijn strot uit.”

Hij wil dat woningen op water onderdeel worden van de normale stedenbouw. Net als hoogbouw ooit een keuze was om ruimte goed te gebruiken. Als je havens en polders gaat benutten als woonwijken, gebruik je de ruimte beter.

Olthuis wil af van de “freak architecture”. Van de “watervillaatjes met een bootje aan het water” voor de happy few. “Want dan blijft het altijd een nichemarkt.” Wonen op het water moet ook toegankelijk worden voor gewone mensen, vindt hij.

Duizenden polders

Aan de techniek ligt het niet. “In Nederland bouwen we meestal op palen of op staal. Kijk eens onder het Paleis op de Dam. Dertienduizend houten palen. Dertienduizend palen staan daar onder één gebouwtje! Dat slaat helemaal nergens op. Houten palen. Het hoogste bos van Nederland. Dat soort funderingen vinden wij fantastisch. Maar daarvan zeg je toch ook niet dat het om paalwoningen gaat?”

Wat hem betreft moeten polders in Nederland gebruikt worden om de woningnood aan te pakken. Laat maar onderlopen. Het land schreeuwt om locaties. Pak een deel van de Haarlemmermeerpolder. Of pak ergens een hele polder.

“We hebben 3.500 polders. Veenpolders. Droogmakerijen. Zeepolders. We halen het water eruit. Maar het is een kunstmatig systeem. Wij wonen met elkaar in een poldermachine. En die machine moet je onderhouden en droog houden. Anders kan je niet wonen en geen landbouw bedrijven. Maar er komt steeds meer regen en meer wateroverlast. Dus moet je harder pompen. Op lange termijn is dat systeem gewoon niet vol te houden.” Waarom al die polders droogmalen? Met verzilting langs de kust en CO2-uitstoot bij de veenpolders tot gevolg. Waar zijn we mee bezig, vraagt Olthuis zich af.

Klimaatverandering

Olthuis zet een kleine maquette op tafel van een drijvende wijk die op de Malediven gepland is. Daar wil de overheid vijftienduizend woningen op het water bouwen. De straten komen te staan op grote pontons en worden via knooppunten aan elkaar gekoppeld. Op een A4’tje tekent de architect een netwerk van lijntjes uit. Hij pakt zijn laptop erbij om nog een schets van bovenaf te laten zien. Het lijkt op een bloemkoolwijk, maar dan met water in plaats van tuinen.

De ontwikkeling van de drijvende stad op de Malediven zit sinds vorig jaar in een stroomversnelling. De plaatselijke minister van Milieu, Klimaatverandering en Technologie, Shauna Aminath, brak bij nieuwsmedium Bloomberg een lans voor de bouw van drijvende wijken. “Door de snelheid waarmee klimaatverandering toeneemt en de zeespiegel stijgt, moeten we op een hogere ondergrond gaan bouwen”, zei ze.

Olthuis vindt het “fantastisch” dat hij betrokken is bij het “opstarten van de nieuwe economie”. “Steun van de overheid is voor ons zó belangrijk”, zegt hij. Met “ons” doelt Olthuis op zijn architectenbureau Waterstudio.NL, ontwikkelaar Dutch Docklands Maldives én op de joint venture tussen de overheid en de Nederlandse onderneming: Dutch Docklands International. Bij het project zijn ook Nederlandse waterbouwers en een ingenieursbureau betrokken. Olthuis is de chief creative officer.

Het wordt een “miljardenproject”, volgens de architect. Critici vrezen dat de woningen door deze hoge kosten alleen te betalen zullen zijn door de rijken. Olthuis houdt de moed erin en denkt dat er in de drijvende stad straks ook plek is voor burgers met een meer bescheiden inkomen.

Onderwatertech

De drijvende stad komt in een lagune, waar de strandjes steeds verder zinken en het rif en het koraal heel dichtbij zijn. “Zo’n stad kan je niet bouwen in het midden van de oceaan, maar je kunt hem wel bouwen in de nabijheid van bestaande infrastructuur”, zegt Olthuis. Bijvoorbeeld dicht bij de hoofdstad Malé, die uit zijn jasje barst.

De woningen zijn fel gekleurd en krijgen onverharde (zand)straten, passend bij de lokale cultuur. “Maar onderwater is alles gewoon hightech”, verzekert Olthuis. Daar liggen het riool en alle leidingen.

De eerste drijvende woonwijk bestaat uit zeshonderd woningen (vier hoog met dakterras). De drijvende stad wordt over het water aangevoerd. Volgend voorjaar komen draagschepen met daarop straten: dat zijn stalen pontons van honderd bij dertig meter. De straten worden vastgemaakt aan palen, laat Olthuis zien met een paar pennenstreken op een A4’tje. “Het is eigenlijk een grote haven. Dat is niet wat mensen willen horen. Maar zo werkt zo’n stad wel.”

*Vijftienduizend drijvende woningen moeten er op de Malediven komen. Illustratie: Waterstudio*

Drijvende flexwoningen

De woningen en straten komen uit China, India en Sri Lanka, landen die ook bij het project betrokken zijn. De woningen die ze maken zijn volgens Olthuis twee keer zo goedkoop als in Nederland, omdat arbeid veel goedkoper is. De flexibele steden van Olthuis kunnen zich aanpassen aan het seizoen. Tennisbanen kunnen na de zomer afdrijven en vervangen worden door parken. “Seizoensgebonden architectuur”, noemt Olthuis dat.

In zekere zin lijkt het op de flexwoningen die de laatste jaren in Nederland aanslaan. Die zijn ook verplaatsbaar. Olthuis: “Dat soort woningen juichen we alleen maar toe.” Ook flexwoningen komen in principe op tijdelijke bestemmingen. En wat hem betreft mogen ze ook drijven.

Olthuis zou graag zien dat het Rijk lege delen van havens in Nederland aanwijst om met drijvende wijken te starten. In Amsterdam of Rotterdam. Op het IJmeer of op de plek waar ooit de Markerwaard zou komen. Maar de architect ziet dat niet snel gebeuren, vanwege de huidige bestemming van die gebieden en verwachte bezwaren van natuurbeschermingsorganisaties. De duizenden polders in Nederland zijn kansrijkere locaties. “We moeten als land kijken of het economisch beter is om een aantal van die polders onder water te zetten.”

City-dokter

De woningnood vormt dé gelegenheid om aan de slag te gaan met drijvende wijken, vindt Olthuis. Anders blijft Nederland hangen in experimenten, zoals die met drijvende woningen bij IJburg in Amsterdam en een projectje in Rotterdam. In het buitenland wordt het concept serieuzer opgepakt, valt Olthuis op. Dat merkt hij alleen al aan de telefoontjes van buitenlandse media. “Vanmiddag word ik gebeld door The New York Times. Elke maand staat er wel een filmploeg hier.” Een week voor dit gesprek was Olthuis keynotespeaker op een congres over drijvend bouwen in Tokio.

Dat het concept van woningbouw op het water in Nederland tot nu toe niet echt aansloeg, frustreert hem. Het bewoog hem er jaren geleden toe aan de TU Delft te promoveren op het onderwerp. Om serieuzer genomen te worden in de stedenbouwwereld. Ook wilde hij de wereld van zijn moeder en vader bij elkaar brengen. “Aan mijn moeders kant zaten de scheepsbouwers. Aan vaders kant de art-nouveau-architecten.”

In plaats van architect zou hij zichzelf liever city-dokter willen noemen. Met water als medicijn. “Ik zie water als mogelijkheid om de stad te verbeteren.”

Tipping point

Inmiddels begint er beweging in te komen. “We gaan richting een tipping point waarin waterwonen, bouwen op natte ondergronden, als een volwaardig alternatief wordt gezien”, denkt Olthuis. Pensioenbeheerders meldden zich al met belangstelling. Ze willen verkennen of wonen op het water op grotere schaal een oplossing kan zijn. “De rol van architecten is om te laten zien dat je geld kan verdienen aan water. Dan volgen de ontwikkelaars wel”, is zijn overtuiging.

Nu Olthuis een doctorstitel heeft, lesgeeft aan de TU Delft en ziet hoe enthousiast studenten zijn over waterwonen, is zijn ambitie groter dan ooit. Hij hoopt dat hij uiteindelijk de stedenbouw kan verrijken.

Daar is dan wel steun van de overheid voor nodig. Die moet regels opstellen, vindt de architect. “Bijvoorbeeld: alles wat we gaan bouwen, moet verschoven kunnen worden. Zonder heel specifiek te zeggen dat het een waterwoning moet zijn. Dan gaat de industrie zoeken naar oplossingen en kunnen er mooie dingen gebeuren.”

Marc Doodeman

Journalist

Marc Doodeman werkt sinds 2008 als redacteur voor Cobouw. Hij houdt de marktontwikkelingen in de bouw bij, kijkt hoe bouwbedrijven het doen en heeft speciale interesse voor de woning(bouw)markt. Fascinatie: op zoek naar het huis (en de huizenmaker) van de toekomst. Marc is te bereiken op: marcdoodeman@vmnmedia.nl.

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Worried About Living in a Flood Zone? Try a House That Floats.

By Ronda Kayson
The New York Times
2023.September.29

Eventually, coastal cities threatened with rising tides and bigger storms could use not just the waterfront, but also the water, as places to build housing.

As sea levels rise, developers are eyeing the water as the next frontier, potentially mooring yachts shaped like floating homes in Biscayne Bay in Miami, like in this photo.Credit…Arkup

As sea levels rise and storms worsen, threatening the planet’s fragile coastlines, some architects and developers are looking to the water not as a looming threat, but as a frontier for development.

“We want to change cities worldwide, we want to see how we can push the cities into the water,” said Koen Olthuis, a Dutch architect and the founder of Waterstudio, an architectural firm that specializes in floating buildings. “I hope that in 50 years time, we look back at our cities and say, ‘Well, floating structures, they are just part of this city recipe, they make sense, they add something to it, they bring us space, cheap houses, flexible cities.’”

About 3 billion people, roughly half of the world’s population, lives within 125 miles of a coastline, according to the Population Reference Bureau. Eventually, coastal cities could claim not just the waterfront, but also the water, building in their harbors, bays, canals and rivers.

It’s already happening in the Netherlands. With a third of its land below sea level, the country has floating offices, a floating dairy farm and a floating pavilion. Floating buildings are often built atop concrete and foam pontoon foundations, allowing them to sit on the water, and rise and fall with currents.

Proponents of the design argue that these buildings protect the environment. While a 2022 study published in the Journal of Water & Climate Change found that floating structures can have a positive benefit, attracting birds to nest and providing habitat and food for sea life, the study also found that they can impact light, currents, wind patterns and water quality. .

A short ferry ride from central Amsterdam is Schoonschip, a community of 30 floating houses, half of them duplexes, on a canal in a former manufacturing neighborhood. The homes, made of wood, are built atop concrete bases and connected by a jetty.

The first residents arrived in 2019, more than a decade after the neighborhood was first conceived. Maarten Remmers, 43, a film producer, paid 450,000 euros for the three-story, three-bedroom home he lives in with his girlfriend and their two children. The house feels steadier than a boat, but sways with the currents. “If it storms, you really feel it, and you see the land dancing,” he said.

The community of more than 100 people feels like a village, with shared e-bikes and cars, and a floating garden. His children, ages 7 and 9, fish and swim in the canal. “You wake up with birds, and ducks next to your window, or swans,” he said.

While Mr. Remmers looks at his community as a sustainable one — the homes have heat pumps, green roofs and are solar powered — he does not see moving his family onto the water as a solution to rising sea levels, balking at the argument that floating cities are somehow a solution to climate change. “It’s nonsense,” he said. “If the whole city is flooded, then, OK, our house will float, but there’s no reason to keep living there anymore.”

A rendering of brightly colored apartment buildings floating on water. — The Maldives, a country vulnerable to rising seas, is building a floating neighborhood near its capital, with apartments, schools, shops and restaurants, as shown in this rendering.Credit…Dutch Docklands Maldives and Waterstudio

Yet, as sea levels rise, low-lying countries like the Maldives are grappling with an existential threat, and building on the water is a way to create land from the encroaching sea. The government, in partnership with the developer Dutch Docklands, is building an entire floating neighborhood in a lagoon 10 minutes by boat from Malé, the nation’s capital.

Next year, the first phase of the 5,000-modular unit development will open — apartments, schools, shops and restaurants built on a floating landscape of serpentine jetties fitted together like Lego pieces. “That is the future,” said Mr. Olthuis, the Dutch architect, who developed the master plan for the Maldives development.

But there are bureaucratic barriers. City building and zoning codes do not address floating houses and neighborhoods built on concrete and foam foundations. Even Amsterdam, a city of known for its houseboats, was not ready for a waterborne neighborhood like Schoonschip, and it took years to navigate the bureaucracy. “There were lots of times I was totally fed up with all the legislation,” Mr. Remmers, who was involved in the development of the community, said. “It took so long.”

Cities may not be prepared for floating neighborhoods, but they are familiar with yachts. So Nicolas Derouin and Arnaud Luguet, two French engineers, designed a yacht that looked like a condo, with a flat roof and open-concept floor plan. Lower the retractable hydraulic pilings down to the ocean floor, and the boat stabilizes. In a storm, the pilings and jack-up system can lift the boat out of the water, protecting it from a storm surge. In 2019, they built their first model — the Arkup 75 — selling it for over $4 million. (The owner is living on the 75-foot boat offshore from the mansion he is building in Miami, Mr. Derouin said.)

Now Arkup has a dozen orders placed for a smaller version, the Arkup 40, which sells for between $500,000 and $1.2 million, depending on configurations. The boats, with 660 square feet of indoor living space, and more than twice as much outdoor space, are being built in Indiana and will travel to Miami by truck.

Dock one outside a beach house and it acts as the ocean’s answer to a pool house. “It becomes an extension of their waterfront property, like a guesthouse or a family room,” Mr. Derouin said. Moor it far from shore and it is an isolated retreat. Lower the pilings and open the retractable decks of the Arkup 40 alongside another one, and you create a network of vessels far from land where you can walk from one boat to the other. “You create a floating villa,” Mr. Derouin said. “You can really create a floating community.”

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Keynote ARCH:ID Indonesia: Blue Cities, building beyond the Waterfront

Waterstudio’s founder, Koen Olthuis, gave a compelling presentation “Blue Cities, building beyond the waterfront” at ARCH:ID the most awaited architectural event in Indonesia.

In his talk Dr. Olthuis discussed Waterstudio’s innovative initiatives to create floating buildings, parks, and structures in urban planning, and how they can lead to the development of a floating city, contributing to a sustainable future of living.

We are proud of our team’s dedication to exploring new solutions for urbanization and climate change, and we remain committed to creating innovative and sustainable designs for our clients.

Over Water – MAX – Bouwen op het water

Aflevering Bouwen op het water en waterzuivering

Hoe kan de woningnood worden aangepakt en hoe kan er gebouwd worden zonder het milieu te belasten? Architect Koen ontwerpt huizen die drijven op water, maar ook complete steden op het water. Hij legt Elles uit hoe, en laat zien waar dit nu al gerealiseerd wordt. Vroeger ging je naar de wc, je trok door en via het riool kwam de boodschap terecht in de zee, enkele kilometers uit de kust. Met het groeiende aantal inwoners in ons land en de huidige klimaatproblematiek is dat geen optie meer. Elles bezoekt een rioolwaterzuivering.

Episode Building on Water and Water Purification

How can the housing shortage be addressed, and how can construction be done without harming the environment? Architect Koen designs houses that float on water, as well as entire cities on the water. He explains to Elles how this is done and shows her where it is already being implemented. In the past, when you used the toilet, you would flush, and the waste would end up in the sea, several kilometers off the coast, through the sewage system. With the growing number of inhabitants in our country and the current climate issues, that is no longer an option. Elles visits a sewage treatment plant.

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12 futuristic cities being built around the world, from Saudi Arabia to China

By Maan Jalal
The National News
2022.August.02

The Mirror Line, Chengdu Future City and Telosa are among the exciting projects in the pipeline

As the world changes, so must our cities.

With world’s population continuing to increase and climate change drastically affecting our environment, many metropolises are struggling to grow, develop and even support citizens within current and traditional urban designs.

Governments, entrepreneurs and technology companies are employing some of the world’s leading architects and designers to rethink the idea of cities, how people can interact and how to live within them.

From reclaimed land, groundbreaking skyscrapers in the desert and cities rising in the metaverse, here are 12 incredible futuristic cities redefining the urban spaces we live in.

The Mirror Line, Saudi Arabia

Designers: Morphosis Architects

Location: Saudi Arabia

The $500 billion Neom project in Saudi Arabia is set to be home to a record-setting 170-kilometre-long skyscraper called the Mirror Line.

It will be the world’s largest structure, comprising of two buildings up to 490 metres tall, running parallel to each other. The structures will be connected by walkways and a high-speed transport system, which will connect one end of the city to the other in 20 minutes.

Designed by the US-based Morphosis Architects, The Mirror Line promises to be walkable city, with no cars and zero carbon emissions.

BiodiverCity, Malaysia

Designers: Bjarke Ingels Group

Location: Penang Island, Malaysia

BiodiverCity is a planned sustainable city made of three artificial islands built off the shore of Penang Island in Malaysia.

A city where people and nature co-exist, each of BiodiverCity’s lily pad-shaped islands will be home to between 15,000 and 18,000 residents. Structures in the city will be built using natural materials such as timber, bamboo and concrete created from recycled materials.

The city is also planned to be a global travel destination with 4.6km of public beaches and 600 acres of parks along with a 25km waterfront. BiodiverCity will also be a car-free environment, where pedestrians can use the planned autonomous water, air and land public transportation network.

Chengdu Future City, China

Designers: OMA

Location: China

China’s planned Chengdu Future City is challenging conventions of urban planning by proposing a master plan not based on traditional, car-oriented road networks.

The six distinct zones of the city will be connected though a smart mobility network using automated vehicles. The zones will also be pedestrian-friendly and within a 10-minute walk of each other.

The 4.6-square-kilometre site also includes an international education park where buildings, including a university, will have landscaped terraces, designed to be an extension of the natural formed landscape.

Akon City, Senegal

Designers: Bakri & Associates Development Consultants

Location: Senegal

Akon City is a planned 2,000-acre futuristic city that will be located along the Atlantic coast, in south of Dakar, Senegal.

Conceived and launched by singer and entrepreneur Akon, the smart city will be eco-friendly and powered by renewable energy. Described by Akon as a “real-life Wakanda”, a reference to the film Black Panther that inspired him, Akon City is set to have large skyscrapers, shopping malls, parks, universities, a stadium and a technology hub.

Akon City’s goal is to stimulate the local economy and create jobs while using the latest technologies of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Telosa, the US

Designers: Bjarke Ingels

Location: The US

Announced in September 2021, Telosa is a proposed city conceived by billionaire Marc Lore, to be built somewhere in the US western desert.

With a planned population of five million people by 2050, Telosa will be a “15-minute city” where all amenities from schools, workplaces and goods and services will be a 15-minute commute from residents’ homes.

Lore hopes Telosa will be the most sustainable city in the world where no vehicles powered by fossil fuels will be permitted. His vision also includes a reformed version of capitalism where wealth is created in a fair way, keeping residents’ quality of life as a priority.

Woven City, Japan

Designers: Bjarke Ingels Group

Location: Japan

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, has already started construction on a 175-acre smart city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan.

Woven City will be one of the world’s first smart cities: a fully autonomous community designed to test new technologies such as automated driving, robotics and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.

The city will be fully sustainable, powered by hydrogen fuel cells where pedestrian streets will intersect with those dedicated to self-driving cars. Wood will be the primary material for building to reduce carbon footprint and rooftops will be covered in photo-voltaic panels to generate solar power.

Over the next five years, there will be a starting population of 360 residents with plans to grow the number of residents over the coming years. Initially they will be inventors, senior citizens and young families who will test and develop smart technologies.

New Administrative Capital, Egypt

A rendering of Iconic Tower. The Capital Business District (CBD) being built in Cairo’s New Administrative Capital. The 20 skyscrapers in the district include the 385-metre Iconic Tower, which will be the tallest building in Africa. Photo: Dar Al-Handasah — A rendering of Iconic Tower in the Capital Business District being built in the New Administrative Capital, Cairo. The 20 skyscrapers in the district include the 385-metre Iconic Tower, which will be the tallest building in Africa. Photo: Dar Al-Handasah

Designers: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Location: Egypt

Capital City is part of a larger initiative for Egypt’s 2030 Vision. The yet-to-be-named new capital city, located 45 kilometres east of Cairo, will be home to up to seven million people.

The privately funded project will cover 700 square kilometres and include 21 residential districts and 25 dedicated districts, 1,250 mosques and churches, solar energy farms and one of the world’s largest urban parks.

The Cairo Light Rail Transit, inaugurated last month, will connect Cairo to the New Administrative Capital. One of the main drivers for the construction was to ease congestion in Cairo, which has a population of more than 10 million people and is continuing to grow.

Liberland, the metaverse

Liberland Metaverse by Zaha Hadid. Photo: Metaverse

Designers: Zaha Hadid

Location: The metaverse

As the metaverse continues to inform how we could interact and occupy the digital realm, it’s also challenging how we view the idea of cities and nations.

British architecture firm Zaha Hadid, in collaboration with the micronation of Liberland and ArchAgenda, is creating a “cyber-urban” city in the metaverse named Liberland Metaverse.

The completely virtual city is based on the Free Republic of Liberland — a micronation claimed by Czech politician Vit Jedlicka, which exists in the disputed land between Croatia and Serbia.

Liberland Metaverse will act as a virtual industry synergy and networking hub for crypto projects, crypto companies and crypto events. People will be able to buy plots of land with cryptocurrency and enter digital buildings as avatars.

Floating City, Maldives

Maldives Floating City will be a car-free zone.

Designers: Waterstudio

Location: Maldives

One of the first floating cities in the world is being built in the Maldives in response to rising sea levels. With climate change threatening to change many cities around the world, 80 per cent of the Maldives is expected to be uninhabitable by 2050.

Maldives Floating City is currently being designed to home 20,000 people as soon as 2024.

The project is being designed to be climate resistant and work with the rising sea levels. The eco-friendly development will include 5,000 low-rise floating homes built on hexagonal structures that rise with the sea.

Amaravati, India

Designers: Foster + Partners

Location: India

The city of Amaravati will be the new administrative capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in south-eastern India.

Situated on the banks of the River Krishna, Amaravati’s structure will be defined by a strong urban grid inspired by Lutyens’ Delhi and Central Park in New York.

Greenery and water will make up at least 60 per cent of the city with the aim of making Amaravati one of the most sustainable cities in the world, complete with the latest technologies such as conversion of light into electricity through the use of photovoltaics.

The transportation will include electric vehicles, water taxis and dedicated cycle routes with numerous pedestrian-friendly routes such as shaded streets and squares.

Nusantara, Indonesia

Nusantara, the new capital in Indonesia. Photo: Urbanplus

Designers: Urban + practice

Location: Indonesia

Indonesia plans to move its capital Jakarta to East Kalimantan, between North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara on the Indonesian part of Borneo island.

Nusantara, the new capital, is planned to be a sustainable city where high-rise structures will utilise 100 per cent eco-friendly construction and use entirely renewable energy. However, environmental groups have been vocal about how Nusantara’s construction could cause damage to one of the world’s oldest rainforests.

The cost of moving the capital is estimated to cost $35 billion and is seen as a necessary step for Indonesia’s future. Building Nusantara will help with the economic growth of Indonesia and ease pressures on Jakarta, which suffers from continuous traffic jams and issues with pollution owing to a population of more than 10 million people.

Net City, China

Designers: NBBJ Design Firm

Location: China

China’s answer to Google, technology firm Tencent is building a city. The 22-million-square-foot urban development named Net City will be built on reclaimed land and will be designed to accommodate a population of 80,000 people.

The planned layout of Net City is designed to reduce traffic by including roads for buses, bikes and automated vehicles.

Net City is planned to be sustainable with rooftop solar panels and advanced technological systems for reusing wastewater.

Ten futuristic cities set to be built around the world

By Nat Barker
Dezeen
2022.August.01

As a 170-kilometre-long mirrored megacity in the Saudi desert makes headlines, here is a roundup of 10 futuristic cities currently being planned across the globe.

Global issues such as the housing crisis and climate change are galvanising ambitions for a new generation of high-tech cities.The Line, a 500-metre-tall skyscraper that will house nine million people in northwestern Saudi Arabia, as shown in this video, is the most recent example but not the only one.

BIG, Foster + Partners and OMA are among multiple architecture studios helping to masterplan futuristic urban centres, which often claim to be designed with a focus on sustainability.

Below are 10 ambitious cities set to be built in the coming decades:

The Line in Saudi Arabia — Image courtesy of Neom

The Line, Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian government this week unveiled visuals for a 170-kilometre-long, 500-metre-tall linear city planned as part of the Neom mega-development.

Despite its length and expected population of nine million, The Line will be just 200 metres wide with a transport system promised to connect the two ends within 20 minutes.

The city was designed as an alternative to the traditional circular urban layout, with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman touting it as “a model for nature preservation and enhanced human livability”.

Telosa, USA, designed by BIG

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his studio BIG are master planning Telosa, a city for five million set to be built from scratch on an as-yet undisclosed site in the US desert.

The project is the idea of billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore, who hopes it will become “the most sustainable city in the world”.

Part of Lore’s vision is that the land will be owned by a community endowment, meaning increases in value could fund the city’s development with resident welfare as the priority.

BiodiverCity masterplan by BIG for Penang Island — Image courtesy of BIG

BiodiverCity, Malaysia, designed by BIG

BIG is also master planning BiodiverCity, a 1,821-hectare development of three artificial islands built off the shore of Malaysia’s Penang Island for the state government.

Each lily-pad-like island is expected to house 15,000 to 18,000 residents and be connected by an autonomous transport network with no cars.

Buildings will be mainly constructed using a combination of bamboo, timber and concrete produced from recycled materials, with an ecological buffer around each district to support biodiversity.

Capital Cairo by SOM — Image courtesy of SOM

New Administrative Capital, Egypt, designed by SOM

Egypt is building an entirely new capital city for up to seven million people in order to relieve congestion in rapidly growing Cairo, its current capital.

Architecture firm SOM produced a masterplan for the privately funded project, which will cover 700 square kilometres and feature one of the world’s largest urban parks.

Indonesia’s government has also announced major plans to build a new capital city on the island of Borneo. Its existing capital Jakarta is the world’s fastest-sinking city, having sunk by 2.5 metres in the 10 years to 2019.

Foster + Partners Amaravati Masterplan — Image courtesy of Foster + Partners

Amaravati, India, designed by Foster + Partners

Set on the banks of the River Krishna, the city of Amaravati will act as the new capital for the Andhra Pradesh state in India.

It will be arranged around a needle-topped government building and see more than 60 per cent of its central district occupied by greenery or water.

“The design brings together our decades-long research into sustainable cities, incorporating the latest technologies that are currently being developed in India,” said Foster + Partners, which is also master planning large neighbourhoods in Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok.

Smart Forest City in Mexico by Stefano Boeri — Image courtesy of Stefano Boeri Architetti

Smart Forest City, Mexico, designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti

Italian architect Stefano Boeri is working on plans for a forested smart city near Cancun that will contain 7.5 million carbon-absorbing plants and trees across its 557 hectares.

It will be designed to house 130,000 people in affordable, plant-covered homes and aims to pioneer a more sustainable way of city living.

“Smart Forest City Cancun is a botanical garden within a contemporary city, based on Mayan heritage and in its relationship with the natural and sacred world,” said Boeri’s studio. “An urban ecosystem where nature and city are intertwined and act as one organism.”

The Orbit by Partisans — Image is by Norm Li

The Orbit, Canada, designed by Partisans

The Orbit is another planned smart city, intended to transform a Canadian farming town through extensive use of fibre optics, drones and autonomous vehicles, with development decisions based on big data.

Toronto firm Partisans has described its design as a modern version of the garden city movement that emerged in the UK in the early 20th century.

It aims to balance new technologies with the existing agrarian setting while growing the town from 30,000 to 150,000 residents.

Maldives Floating City render from above — Image courtesy of Waterstudio/Dutch Docklands Maldives

Maldives Floating City, Maldives, designed by Waterstudio

Rising sea levels due to climate change mean much of The Maldives is expected to be uninhabitable by 2050. In response, the country’s government has partnered with architecture practice Waterstudio to design a floating city that will house 20,000 people in a lagoon near its capital as soon as 2024.

Billed by the architects as “the world’s first true floating island city”, it will include 5,000 low-rise floating homes and be built on a series of hexagonal structures that rise with the sea.

Another prototype climate-resilient floating city is being designed by Danish studio BIG together with Samoo and tech company Oceanix for the seas off Busan in South Korea.

Find out more about Maldives Floating City ›

A cluster of green-roofed buildings within a masterplan by OMA — Image courtesy of OMA

Chengdu Future City, China, designed by OMA

Dutch architecture firm OMA has produced a car-free masterplan for the capital of China’s Sichuan province that it claims challenges conventional urban planning models that are driven by road networks or maximising gross floor area.

Set to occupy a 4.6 square kilometre site, Chengdu Future City will instead focus on the land’s rolling topography, with six distinct zones designed to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

All buildings within each zone will be accessible by foot within 10 minutes, while a “smart mobility network” utilising automated vehicles will connect the city to the rest of Chengdu.

Innovation Park by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects and Tom Wiscombe Architecture — Image courtesy of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects and Tom Wiscombe Architecture

Innovation Park, USA, designed by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects and Tom Wiscombe Architecture

Cryptocurrency magnate Jeffrey Berns plans to develop part of Nevada‘s desert into a smart city powered by blockchain technology.

With the help of architecture studios Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects and Tom Wiscombe Architecture, he intends to transform the 27,113-hectare plot into a community where people can bank, vote and store data without involvement from governments or third parties.

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Maldives Floating City reinvents living in a water world

By Laura Cowan
InHabitat
2022.July.27

A circular area filled with a floating city within

This design was in line with the concept of living with nature and learning to improve and respect natural coral. Furthermore, Maldives is the global center for coral protection.

A rendering of seating area amidst palm trees

Therefore, the housing are “scarless developments” because of their attempt to not damage the environment on which they are built. Sustainability of the new community is also a top priority, with the developers finding new methods to “interact in a durable way with our surroundings.”

In specific focus here is how to increase sustainability using water. Maldives Floating City is a development of Dutch Docklands in partnership with the Government of Maldives. Masterplan architect for the project was Waterstudio from the Netherlands. The location: a lagoon close to the capital Male and the International Airport at over 500 acres in size.

Additionally, the city is mixed use, with residential, hotels, shopping and restaurants located within the grid. Sales will start soon, and expressions of interest can be made on the city’s website. Most importantly, this is the first floating city with thousands of houses with full governmental support that allows for legal title deeds for owners. The floating city also offers the possibility to obtain a residence permit with the purchase of a house, which means internationals can live here semi permanently in Maldives.

On the other hand, the design of the homes was inspired by the history of this seafaring nation in the tropics. The city is designed as a boating community, using canals as the main infrastructure for shipping and travel. Land-based travel is restricted to walking, biking and noise-free electric scoots, with no cars allowed.

Colorful houses in a neighborhood rendering

The Maldives Floating City also has green technology, including a smart grid that responds to dynamic demand, weather and climate change. Sustainable development technologies protect the marine ecosystem.

All in all, the city aims to create new habitat for the marine ecosystem it is built on rather than destroying it. New artificial coral banks will be attached to the underside of the city, which can help coral attach and grow naturally. The coral reefs of the lagoon, in turn, act as a natural wave breaker to protect against storm damage.

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The Maldives are building a floating city to address rising sea levels and population

By Jonathan Ore & Morgan Passi
CBC Radio
2022.June.23

Venture between Maldivian government and a Dutch firm hopes to provide floating homes for 20K people

Concept art for a floating city in the Maldives, which is currently under construction. Design firm Waterstudio says it plans to house up to 20,000 people in the face of rising sea levels and the already-densely packed population of the island nation. (Waterstudio/Dutch Docklands Maldives)

The Maldives are building a floating city to address rising sea levels and population

The Maldives is in the early stages of building an elaborately designed floating city in an effort to ensure future livable spaces, as sea levels continue to rise, and provide new affordable spaces for the densely populated island nation.

The city, currently dubbed “Maldives Floating City,” is a joint project between the government of the Maldives and property developer Dutch Docklands.

“A floating city should look exactly the same like normal cities. So with sandy roads, beautiful, colourful houses. But then if you look under the city, it’s floating,” said Koen Olthuis, architect and founder of Waterstudio, the architectural firm that designed the city.

“That means that the whole city can move up and down with [tides] and with extreme floods and with sea level rise. But it won’t be different than a normal city,” he told As It Happens guest host Tom Harrington.

Young men swimming at sunset by the tetrapods on Nov. 6, 2016 in Male, Maldives. The Maldives, located in the Indian Ocean, is the world’s lowest-lying country, with no part lying more than 2 metres above sea level and more than 80 per cent of its scattered islands less than 1 metre above sea level. (Aishath Adam/Getty Images)

The city will include a mix of affordable housing as well as higher-end homes, in addition to restaurants, hotels and shops. Prices for the homes will range from $150,000 US ($194,000 Cdn) for a studio apartment to $250,000 ($323,000 Cdn) for family homes.

A total of 5,000 living units are planned, with a capacity of housing 20,000 people once construction is completed some time in 2027. The Maldives and Dutch Docklands are set to unveil its first completed units in the coming weeks, with people starting to move in by 2024.

Abdulla Mausoom, the Maldives’ minister of tourism, said the city “will compliment futuristic, sustainable tourism and living” in a tweet on Wednesday.

Rising sea levels, accelerated by climate change, pose a particularly dire threat to the Maldives, which is made up of over 1,100 islands, many of them barely a metre above sea level.

According to National Geographic, some experts fear it may become the first nation on the planet to disappear entirely beneath sea waters.

The ‘brain coral’ city

Concept art so far depicts brightly coloured homes sitting on calm waters. An overhead view shows a network of buildings and water canals, arranged in patterns resembling brain coral.

The design comes from “the goal of living with nature and leaning to improve and respect natural coral … which leads to new knowledge emphasising the responsibility Maldives takes as centre for coral protection in the world,” reads an explanation on the project’s promotional website.

As Olthuis explains, much of the Maldives are surrounded by coral reefs, some of which should help protect the 200-hectare floating city from the worst storms and other extreme weather the Indian Ocean might offer.

The homes, restaurants and other buildings are planned to be laid out in a hexagonal pattern resembling brain coral. (Waterstudio/Dutch Docklands Maldives)

The Maldivian capital Malé itself is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with a population of over 200,000 people packed on an island about eight square kilometres across.

Olthuis said you might consider the floating city an extension of Malé itself because of its close proximity, allowing residents access to already-existing infrastructure such as schools and health-care.

Possible living solutions for around the world

This isn’t the only time a floating city has been proposed as a direct answer to rising sea levels. The South Korean city of Busan announced in December that it was working on a prototype for Oceanix, a similar city that would expand off the coast of the shipping city of Busan.

The Busan government announced it was a joint project with UN-Habitat, the United Nation’s agency for urban and sustainable development.

A total of 5,000 living units are planned, with a capacity of housing 20,000 people once construction is completed some time in 2027. (Waterstudio/Dutch Docklands Maldives)

Olthuis said the Maldives project has been in the works for nearly 10 years, and that the planning and design work that has so far gone into the Maldives city could be applied to similar projects in other coastal communities around the world threatened by rising sea levels.

“If you look at Miami, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, they all have the same problems: lack of space, threat of sea level,” he said.

“They have to make the move from fighting against the water, to living with water.”

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Amerikaanse media lovend over ‘drijvende stad’ van Nederlandse makelij

By Pim Pauwels
Metro Nieuws
2022.June.20

Amerikaanse media, waaronder CNN, hebben lovende woorden over voor een drijvende stad met een Nederlands tintje bij de Malediven. De stad is groot genoeg om zo’n 20.000 mensen te huisvesten. CNN noemt de stad „een praktische oplossing voor de harde realiteit van de zeespiegelstijging”. Extra bijzonder is dat de stad door een Nederlandse projectontwikkelaar wordt gebouwd.

„Een stad rijst op uit de wateren van de Indische Oceaan”, begint CNN het louter positieve artikel. De stad heeft een patroon dat doet denken aan hersenen. 5.000 units moet in de stad komen, waaronder huizen, restaurants, winkels en scholen. De eerste bewoners kunnen er begin 2024 in en de hele stad is rond 2027 klaar.

Malediven liggen naar verwachting voor groot deel onder water in 2100

Het is niet verwonderlijk dat juist in de Malediven aan het project gewerkt wordt. De eilandengroep is een van ‘s werelds meest kwetsbare landen voor klimaatverandering. Ruim driekwart van het land ligt niet meer dan één meter boven de zeespiegel.

Aangezien die zeespiegel naar verwachting de komende tientallen jaren stijgt, ligt bijna het hele land voor 2100 onder water. Daarom moest er volgens de regering een oplossing komen. Die oplossing zagen ze in een drijvende stad.

Dutch Docklands en Waterstudio, twee Nederlandse bedrijven, zijn verantwoordelijk voor de bouw. In een eigen fotoserie deelt architectenbureau Waterstudio hoe de hypermoderne stad eruit moet komen zien.

Een drijvende stad stijgt mee met zeespiegel

In plaats van te bouwen op land, bouwen de Nederlanders in samenwerking met de Malediven op zee. Want een stad die drijft, stijgt mee met de zee, zo is het idee. „Dit is nieuwe hoop voor de meer dan een half miljoen mensen van de Malediven”, zegt Koen Olthuis, oprichter van Waterstudio, het architectenbureau dat de stad heeft ontworpen, tegen CNN.

„Het bewijst dat er betaalbare woningen, grote gemeenschappen en normale steden aan het water zijn die ook veilig zijn. De mensen op de Malediven zullen van klimaatvluchtelingen naar klimaatvernieuwers gaan.”

Nederland een ‘centrale plaats voor verandering’, aldus CNN

CNN verwijst naar de geschiedenis die Nederland met het water heeft. Ons land is volgens het Amerikaanse medium „een centrale plaats voor verandering geworden, met drijvende parken, een drijvende melkveehouderij en een drijvend kantoorgebouw”, waarmee ze verwijzen naar projecten in Rotterdam.

Plannen voor een drijvende stad zijn overigens niet helemaal nieuw. Zo lanceerde Zuid-Korea ook al een plan om een stad op zee te maken. Die draagt de naam Oceanix City. Ook wijst CNN naar een reeks drijvende eilanden in de Oostzee, die weer door een Nederlands bedrijf wordt gemaakt. „Maar geen enkele kan op tegen de schaal en tijdschema van het plan op de Malediven.”

Floating City auf den Malediven: Die Stadt, die schwimmt

Der Standard
2022.March.13

Auf den Malediven wird die weltweit größte schwimmende Stadt errichtet. Dutch Docklands bauen sie inmitten einer 200 Hektar großen Lagune

Ansichtssache

Lagunenstadt mal anders: Bunte Häuser, Bootsanlegeplätze, dazu Geschäfte, Restaurants und Hotels – kurz, eine ganze kleine bunte Stadt soll in einer zu den Malediven gehörenden Lagune im Indischen Ozean entstehen. Die Idee dafür stammt von Mohamed Nasheed, Ex-Präsident der Malediven und heute Sprecher des Parlaments in dem Inselstaat, der aus mehr als tausend Koralleninseln, verteilt auf 26 Archipel, besteht.

Nasheed berichtet in einem Image-Video über die Entstehungsgeschichte des Projekts: Er besuchte 2009 den Klimagipfel in Kopenhagen, wo er unter großer medialer Aufmerksamkeit auf das baldige Verschwinden seines Staates hinwies und viel mehr Anstrengungen gegen die Erderwärmung einforderte. Auf dieser Reise habe er aber auch viel über schwimmende Behausungen gelernt, unter anderem über ein Projekt der Uni Kopenhagen. Seit damals laufen Planungen für das Großprojekt.

Denn man habe auf den Malediven andererseits auch gelernt, dass man aus ökologischen Gründen die natürlichen Küstenlinien beibehalten und nicht länger durch Aufschüttung Land gewinnen sollte. Letzteres war auf den Malediven bisher üblich. Die Hauptinsel Malé wurde bereits um ein Viertel vergrößert, auch für die Flughafeninsel Hulhule sowie die nördlich davon gelegene Insel Hulhumalé, wo gerade ein ganz neuer Stadtteil entsteht, wurden Aufschüttungen vorgenommen, ebenso wie für die eine oder andere reine Touristeninsel.

Jetzt will man es besser machen: Bis 2027 soll eine schwimmende Stadt errichtet werden in einer Lagune, die nur zehn Bootsminuten nördlich von Malé gelegen ist. Mit dem Schnellboot soll die Hauptstadt sogar in nur fünf Minuten erreichbar sein.Errichtet wird die Maldives Floating City vom Unternehmen Dutch Docklands, wo man stolz ist auf das “300-jährige niederländische Know-how bezüglich schwimmender Behausungen” und selbst auch bereits tausende schwimmende Häuser in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten errichtet hat, sagt CEO Paul van de Camp. “Anfangs waren die Leute sehr skeptisch, aber jetzt sind schwimmende Häuser der Hit in den Niederlanden.”

Mit dem Projekt auf den Malediven begebe man sich nun aber sozusagen auf einen neuen Level. “Es wird weltweit die allererste schwimmende Stadt sein.” Die Malediven, deren Staatsgebiet zu 99,6 Prozent aus Wasser besteht, seien perfekt dafür geeignet.Konkret sollen auf einem Netz aus sechseckigen Strukturen auf der rund 200 Hektar großen Wasserfläche innerhalb der Lagune tausende schwimmende Häuser mit bis zu zwei Etagen entstehen, außerdem …

… Plätze mit Palmen und zahlreiche Brücken. Wie genau man dabei baulich vorgehen wird, wurde dem STANDARD bisher nicht beantwortet. Preise werden aber schon genannt: Rund 250.000 Euro soll eine 100-Quadratmeter-Wohneinheit mit 40 Quadratmeter großer Dachterrasse kosten. Ausländischen Käufern wird eine permanente Aufenthaltsgenehmigung versprochen, Nasheed sieht in der Floating City aber auch gute Wohnmöglichkeiten für jungvermählte Einheimische.Auf der Immobilienmesse Mipim in Cannes wird das Projekt in den nächsten Tagen vorgestellt, außerdem ist es auch für einen Mipim Award nominiert – und zwar in der Kategorie “Best Futura Mega Project”.