By HKIE-YMC
Overseas delegation Hong Kong
2015
The delegates visited the architectural firm Waterstudio which specialzes in the design of floating building, landscape and urban planning solutions with floating components. Apart from the local developments, they have also worked on several floating projects in China, Unites Arab Emirate and the Maldives.
By Frederic Joignot
Le Monde
Vinght mille lieux sur les mers: Comment les architectes voient la vie sur l’eau
Projet “Citadel” d’appartements, agence Waterstudio (Hollande). Il s’agit de construire dans des polders ouverts des habitations flottantes adaptées à la montée des eaux. C’est une “citadelle” parce qu’il s’agit “du dernier rempart contre la mer”, disent les architectes.
Un vieux rêve de l’humanité est de se réfugier sur une île pour y refaire sa vie, voire le monde, inventer une société meilleure, expérimenter des voies nouvelles pour l’humanité. C’est sur une île que Thomas More situait Utopia (1516), sa société idéale, au cœur d’une île encore que Tommaso Campanella imaginait la Cité du Soleil (1602) ou Sir Francis Bacon La Nouvelle Atlantide(1624), menée par les philosophes. Aujourd’hui, ces utopies insulaires sont rattrapées par la réalité terrestre : construire des cités écologiques sur des îles nouvelles est devenu un mouvement architectural. Né dans l’urgence de la menace environnementale, ce courant qui a gagné l’urbanisme interpelle, depuis dix ans, économistes, institutions internationales et gouvernements.
Ce mouvement a un drapeau – bleu, couleur des océans – et un pays pionnier : les Pays-Bas. Elu en 2007 parmi les personnes les plus influentes de l’année par le magazine Time, l’architecte Koen Olthuis, cofondateur de l’agence Waterstudio, à Ryswick, est l’un de ses praticiens et théoriciens. Il signe ses mails Green is good, blue is better (« le vert [le souci écologique], c’est bien, le bleu, c’est mieux ») et avance plusieurs arguments pour expliquer pourquoi construire sur les mers est une idée d’avenir : « D’ici 2050, 70 % de la population mondiale vivra dans des zones urbanisées. Or, les trois quarts des plus grandes villes sont situées en bord de mer, alors que le niveau des océans s’élève. Cette situation nous oblige à repenser radicalement la façon dont nous vivons avec l’eau. » Car, rappelle-t-il, les cités géantes du XXIe siècle sont mal en point : « La préoccupation “verte” qui saisit aujourd’hui architectes et urbanistes ne suffira pas à résoudre les graves problèmes environnementaux des villes. Comment allons-nous affronter les problèmes de surpopulation ? De pollution ? Résister à la montée des eaux ? » Sa réponse : en bâtissant des quartiers flottants, de nouvelles îles, en aménageant des plans d’eau pour un urbanisme amphibie. « La mer est notre nouvelle frontière », affirme l’architecte, détournant la formule de John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Car si l’espace manque sur terre, la mer est immense – et inhabitée.
Waterstudio n’est pas la seule agence néerlandaise à développer cette vision « bleue ». Plusieurs cabinets d’architecture et entreprises expertes, reconnues internationalement, bâtissent déjà sur l’eau. Il faut rappeler qu’aux Pays-Bas, contrée où l’on compte 3 500 polders et des villes sillonnées de canaux, s’adapter et résister aux assauts de la mer et aux inondations est une activité séculaire indispensable : en 1953, une violente tempête a causé près de 2 000 morts et provoqué l’évacuation de 100 000 personnes. Ce savoir-faire est devenu symbolique de la lutte de l’homme face à une nature menaçante, perturbée par le changement climatique. Désormais, « le monde est un polder », écrivait le biologiste Jared Diamond dans Effondrement. Comment les sociétés décident de leur disparition ou de leur survie (Gallimard, 2006).
Sauf que les polders, ces terres artificiellement gagnées sur l’eau, ne suffisent plus. Waterstudio a notamment conçu des maisons flottantes à IJburg, un quartier expérimental au sud-est d’Amsterdam. D’autres projets maritimes sont en cours. En 2009, l’agence a dessiné le projet Citadel, une cité flottante de 60 appartements installée dans un polder délibérément ouvert aux eaux. « Nous l’appelons Citadel, car ce sera la dernière ligne de défense contre la mer », explique Koen Olthuis, pour qui ce projet « montre clairement les possibilités infinies de la construction sur l’eau »
Au pays des polders, le fait de bâtir des immeubles flottants offre un complet renversement de perspective : « Nous cherchons à nous adapter à la mer, à l’accompagner, plutôt que lutter avec elle », explique l’architecte. Quand les habitations flottent, nul besoin de pomper l’eau, de renforcer en permanence les digues. Un nouvel urbanisme s’invente, où des quartiers entiers, jardins et maisons, reposent sur l’eau, parfois ancrés au sol, parfois mobiles. Une telle conception, avance l’architecte, va bouleverser toutes nos habitudes urbaines. Elle nous oblige à revoir « notre vision statique des villes » : la terre habitée ne sera plus tout entière « ferme ». Elle nous engage à repenser notre « exigence du sec » sur des territoires protégés par les digues, pour vivre sur l’eau. Elle annonce la multiplication d’habitats flottants et amphibies sur les zones côtières.
« Une ville plus mouvante, plus dynamique, se dessine. Certains habitats et services se déplaceront. L’urbanisme, la vie citadine vont en être transformés », conclut Koen Olthuis. Il n’est pas le seul à le penser. Du 26 au 29 août, signe des temps bleus à venir, se tiendra à Bangkok Icaade 2015, la première conférence internationale sur l’architecture amphibie. A Lagos, au Nigeria, l’architecte Kunlé Adeyemi a conçu une école flottante pour les enfants du bidonville de Makoko, sur la lagune. Posée sur des barils, équipée de panneaux solaires, elle a été inaugurée en février 2013. Kunlé Adeyemi prévoit de bâtir une flottille de maisons sur le même principe.
Les architectes de l’agence DeltaSync, à Delft, aux Pays-Bas, ont synthétisé ces idées dans un manifeste architectural et économique : « Blue Revolution ». Si les terres viennent à manquer, écrivent-ils, « où irons-nous ? Dans le désert ? Les ressources en eau manquent. Dans l’espace ? C’est toujours trop cher. Reste l’océan ». Notre planète de rechange est là. Car 71 % de la surface terrestre est maritime. Le texte continue : « Ce siècle verra l’émergence sur l’océan de nouvelles cités durables (…). Elles contribueront à offrir un haut standard de vie à la population, tout en protégeant les écosystèmes. Un rêve ? Non, la réponse au principal défi du XXIe siècle. »
L’agence DeltaSync, qui a construit en 2010 un pavillon flottant dans le port de Rotterdam, conseille le gouvernement néerlandais sur ses projets d’aménagement urbain, travaille sur la flottabilité et la stabilité de l’architecture aquatique. Elle développe avec l’université des sciences appliquées Inholland un projet de parc sur l’eau dans le port du Rhin, à Rotterdam : imaginez un petit archipel abritant un marché, une piscine, des restaurants, un centre de sport, une salle de concert. L’idée pourrait être reprise dans plusieurs villes néerlandaises, dans les ports ou sur des polders ouverts.
Un autre projet conçu pour un bassin portuaire est le Sea Tree, l’arbre de mer. Conçu par Waterstudio, encore dans les cartons, il révèle une autre dimension de l’architecture bleue : son exigence écologique. Il s’agit d’une haute structure en terrasses, entièrement végétalisée, construite selon les principes de la technologie offshore. Chaque grande ville côtière pourrait en installer. Ces arbres maritimes géants pourraient aider à lutter contre l’épuisement environnemental des grandes cités : ils comporteront des potagers verticaux et des terrasses plantées pour nourrir les citadins, ils capteront le CO2, ils abriteront quantité d’animaux utiles – oiseaux, abeilles, chauves-souris insectivores – qui rayonneront sur la côte et la ville proche. A Manhattan, à Singapour, les municipalités réfléchissent sérieusement à en installer, assure-t-on à Waterstudio.
On retrouve, dans ce projet de tour portuaire, plusieurs des idées-forces du courant dit de l’« architecture écologique », en plein essor. C’est un autre volet stratégique de la construction « bleue » : récupérer et consolider les principes de la construction « verte ». Autrement dit, s’appuyer sur les énergies durables (éolien, solaire, chauffage passif, géothermie), végétaliser les terrasses et les toits, intégrer les immeubles à l’écosystème local, s’inspirer des formes naturelles. L’architecte malaisien Ken Yeang, l’un des théoriciens de cette écoarchitecture, auteur de The Green Skyscraper (« Le gratte-ciel vert », non traduit, Prestel, 1999), a poussé cette réflexion très loin : selon lui, un immeuble doit être conçu dès l’origine comme un « système vivant construit », afin de pouvoir entrer « en symbiose » avec son environnement : sobre en énergie, recyclable, bioclimatique, l’habitat doit participer du cycle naturel, réintégrer la biosphère et dépolluer, tel un arbre colossal.
Pour bâtir cette cité aquatique, il faudra d’abord concevoir des grands caissons flottants de différents formats qui s’emboîteront jusqu’à former des îlots constructibles. Les premières unités doivent être mises en chantier cette année. Les commanditaires ont hâte de les tester : la pollution des grandes villes chinoises est telle que les autorités envisagent de construire rapidement à l’écart des zones atteintes. Sur l’eau, en face des cités enfumées. Demain, ces cités pourraient abriter une partie de la population littorale, désengorger les mégapoles, être économes en énergie, alléger la dégradation environnementale
Que répondent les architectes « bleus » à ces critiques et à ces risques d’une pollution aggravée ? Ils soulignent qu’ils ne veulent pas construire des îles artificielles, mais flottantes, qui n’altéreront pas les fonds marins. Et ils avancent un nouvel argument de poids : au XXIe siècle, l’humanité (9,6 milliards d’habitants attendus en 2050) va rencontrer de graves problèmes de terre arable, d’épuisement des stocks halieutiques et d’alimentation – toutes choses qui inquiètent beaucoup l’Organisation des Nations unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO). A Londres, pour les concepteurs de la Floating City, la cause est entendue : seule une future « colonisation » des mers permettra d’arrêter la conquête des terres par la ville. Ils écrivent : « La biologie terrestre a été soumise depuis longtemps à une exploitation si intensive que les terres encore inexploitées doivent être préservées de l’urbanisation. De nouvelles colonies maritimes devront être planifiées au XXIe siècle. »
C’est sur cette problématique de la disparition et de l’épuisement des sols, associée à une crise alimentaire, que les défenseurs de l’urbanisme marin rejoignent un autre volet de la « révolution bleue » : la croissance exponentielle de l’aquaculture mondiale depuis vingt ans. En 2008, selon un rapport de la FAO, l’aquaculture a fourni 46 % des poissons à l’échelle mondiale. Il s’agissait à 87 % de poissons d’eau douce, mais l’aquaculture marine est en progression constante, ainsi que l’algoculture et la conchyliculture (élevage des mollusques marins). Cela se comprend : la pèche industrielle menaçant d’épuiser les stocks de nombreux poissons, l’aquaculture apparaît comme une réponse viable pour nourrir les populations, même si elle rencontre de sérieux problèmes de gestion durable.
Or, les architectes bleus avancent que l’avenir de l’aquaculture maritime passera par l’édification de fermes et de bassins nourriciers à proximité des cités côtières. C’est l’idée qui est derrière un projet de l’agence DeltaSync, « Floating food cities will save the world » (« les villes alimentaires flottantes sauveront le monde »), développé par l’ingénieur Rutger de Graaf. Imaginant une nouvelle forme d’économie circulaire, il explique que la construction de récifs artificiels accueillant poissons et crustacés, de bassins d’aquaculture aquaponique recyclant les éléments nutritifs apportés par les déchets des villes flottantes, et d’îles agricoles permettra de nourrir les populations urbaines côtières. Selon lui, il suffirait que 1 % des mers soient consacrées à l’aquaculture pour nourrir l’humanité – le reste des eaux devant être sanctuarisé. Une étude de faisabilité accompagne ces projets
Les partisans de l’architecture « bleue » avancent enfin qu’elle devrait permettre d’éviter un des drames possibles du changement climatique : la submersion de nombreuses îles du fait de la montée des eaux. Le gouvernement des Maldives y croit, qui a lancé en 2010 un programme de constructions sur l’eau afin d’accueillir les populations menacées et de sauver le tourisme : des projets de villages amarrés mais aussi d’îlots de plaisance, d’hôtels et de golfs flottants sont à l’étude. Ces réalisations pionnières, encore très élitistes − « Les riches paient pour les prototypes qui serviront à tous », explique Koen Olthuis –, sont étudiées de près par les Etats insulaires d’Océanie, qui ont lancé en juillet 2014, lors du 45e Forum des îles du Pacifique, un appel de détresse aux pays industrialisés.
Ils ont rappelé que l’archipel de Kiribati, où vivent 110 000 personnes, risque de devenir inhabitable en 2030 – même si certains scientifiques assurent que les atolls vont s’élever avec les mers. Les autorités ont d’ores et déjà acquis 2 400 hectares dans les îles Fidji pour les reloger. Le président de la République des Kiribati, Anote Tong, a aussi évoqué la possibilité de construire une « île flottante » pour les futurs réfugiés climatiques. Or, deux projets de ce type existent dans les cartons des architectes bleus. Le premier, un ensemble de trois îlots végétalisés, agricoles, supportant une tour d’habitation géante, est étudié par le constructeur japonais Shimizu Corp.
By Amy Martinez
Florida Trend
February.2015
A 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling could lead to a first-of-its-kind floating home development in south Florida.
(Amy Martinez)
In 2005, Hurricane Wilma destroyed a pair of dilapidated marinas in North Bay Village where Fane Lozman, a former Marine pilot and software developer, kept a two-story floating home.
The Category 3 storm struck from the south, scattering splintered docks and other large debris into more than a dozen neighboring floating homes.
For years, Lozman had relished the camaraderie and convenience of living on Biscayne Bay, especially the easy access to deep-sea diving and fishing and his favorite Miami Beach restaurants. “Your speedboat was tied up right outside your front door. And you could enjoy the south Florida water lifestyle immediately and at any time,” he says.
After Lozman’s floating home, which had been docked at the north end of the marina community, emerged relatively unscathed, he quickly began looking for another place to anchor. In 2006, he had his home towed 70 miles north to Riviera Beach and rented a slip at a city-owned marina.
His new neighbors told him not to get too comfortable, however, because a planned, $2.4-billion marina redevelopment project soon would displace them. Lozman sued Riviera Beach to stop the project. And that led to another dispute, which eventually wound up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2009, after failing to evict Lozman in state court, Riviera Beach went to federal court, seeking a lien for about $3,000 in dockage fees and nominal trespass damages.
The city argued that because Lozman’s floating home could move across water, it was a vessel under U. S. maritime law. A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale agreed, and the home was seized, sold at auction and destroyed by Riviera Beach, which cast the winning bid.
Lozman countered that his home was similar to an ordinary landbased house and should have been protected from seizure under state law. The home consisted of a 60-by- 12-foot plywood structure built on a floating platform — with no motor or steering — and could move only under tow.
Lozman’s appeal caught the Supreme Court’s eye. And in early 2013, it handed him a victory. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the majority opinion that because Lozman could not “easily escape liability by sailing away” and because he faced no “special sea dangers,” his home was not a vessel and not subject to seizure under maritime law. Lozman is still seeking compensation from Riviera Beach for his home’s destruction.
After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Kerri Barsh, a Greenberg Traurig attorney who helped argue Lozman’s case on appeal, contacted Netherlands-based Dutch Docklands, a developer of floating homes.
Founded in 2005 by architect Koen Olthuis and hotel developer Paul van de Camp, Dutch Docklands had designed hundreds of floating homes in Holland and was looking to expand to the United States. Barsh believed the high-court ruling created an opening for the company to pursue a first-of-its-kind floating home development in south Florida.
It meant, for example, that buyers could get a mortgage and homeowners insurance, though they’d also have to pay property taxes. The Coast Guard couldn’t enter their homes to inspect for life jackets and other safety measures — and “if a gardener or maid is injured on your property, you don’t have to comply with strict workers’ comp standards,” she says. “You also may be entitled to a homestead exemption.”
Dutch Docklands now is proposing a collection of multimilliondollar floating homes at a privately owned lake in North Miami Beach. Plans call for 29 man-made, private islands that are attached to the lake bottom with telescopic piles to guarantee stability.
Each island would cost an estimated $15 million and include a 7,000-sq.-ft. home, infinity pool, sandy beach and boat dockage, plus access to a 30th “amenity” island with clubhouse. The target market is celebrities and wealthy foreigners who want both privacy and proximity to downtown Miami, says Frank Behrens, a Miami-based executive vice president at Dutch Docklands.
“Buying your own island is a very complex process, and yet it’s a dream a lot of people aspire to,” he says. “Basically, what we’re offering is a way to realize that dream. Within two minutes, you can be on land and go to a Heat game or fancy restaurant.”
Historically, floating homes have not been widely embraced in Florida. A case in point is Key West’s Houseboat Row, which started in the 1950s as a playground for the rich, but in the 1970s deteriorated into floating shacks and live-aboards. In the 1990s, then-Mayor Dennis Wardlow repeatedly criticized Houseboat Row as an eyesore and environmental hazard. And by 2002, the community’s residents had been evicted and moved to a city-owned marina at Garrison Bight.
Today, the city marina has 35 floating homes and won’t accept any more. “We prefer to take in a registered marine vessel that’s Coast Guard certified,” says marina supervisor David Hawthorne. “Most marinas have moved out of it because of the liability, and there’s just more money in” short-term boat rentals.
To succeed in Florida, Dutch Docklands will have to change perceptions. The company promotes its brand of floating homes as a response to rising sea levels and climate change. And south Florida — as ground zero for sea level rise — could prove a receptive audience. Because of how they’re anchored, the floating homes move vertically with the tides, but not horizontally, enabling them to adapt to longterm climate changes and also hold steady in storms, Behrens says.
He hopes to begin construction next year at Maule Lake, a former limestone rock quarry with direct access to the Intracoastal Waterway. But his plans may be optimistic. The company recently filed for zoning approval and still faces questions about environmental impacts, the homes’ ability to withstand hurricanes and visual effects on the surrounding community.
“One of the big struggles we’ve had in this state is coming to grips with the fact that there’s a finite amount of land and water,” says Richard Grosso, a land-use and environmental law professor at Nova Southeastern University. “We tend to not recognize the importance of open space — the aesthetic and psychological value of it.”
Condominium towers — some pricier than others — surround Maule Lake. Behrens says local residents are understandably concerned about the project.
“If all of a sudden, a foreign developer comes and says, ‘Hey, we’re going to build private islands on this lake,’ I’d be upset, too,” he says. “But if you live in a $200,000 condo, and you get a $15-million private island on the lake in front of you, where a celebrity lives, you can imagine that the value of your real estate will go up.”
Even if all goes as planned for Dutch Docklands, it’s unlikely to spark copycat projects throughout Florida. Maule Lake presents “a pretty unique set of circumstances,” says Miami environmental lawyer Howard Nelson. At 174 acres, it’s big enough to accommodate a floating development without blocking boats — “and there’s very few bodies of water where the submerged land is privately owned,” says the Bilzin Sumberg attorney.
Meanwhile, Lozman has bought 29 acres of submerged land on the western shore of Singer Island in Palm Beach County. He says he’s talking with developers about building his own floating home community.
“I could see maybe 30 floating homes out there one day,” he says. “It would essentially duplicate the North Bay Village community that was destroyed in Wilma.”
By Barbara Speed
Written by Citymetric
August.14.2014
“What if a city was as flexible as a shuffle puzzle?” Koen Olthuis asked in his 2012 TEDx talk. He was referring to those games in which you move squares around until you make a picture. At the time, his audience probably didn’t realise he was serious.
But using moveable little boxes to meet a city’s needs were exactly what Olthuis was proposing. His talk was on the subject of the “Floating City Apps” developed by his architectural firm, the Netherlands-based Waterstudio. (You may remember them from their plans for a floating golf course in the Maldives. Or maybe you saw their designs for a snowflake-shaped hotel off the coast of Norway.)
These mobile buildings would float on bodies of water at the edges of cities. They could also be moved around according to a city’s needs, and could fulfil a range of different functions. Some would be educational, with internet access and computers; others could act as bakeries, housing, healthcare centres, or floating mats of solar panels.
In June, the first piece of Olthuis’ shuffle puzzle was completed: an educational suite which will double up as an internet cafe in the evenings, all powered by solar panels on its roof. It’s been built inside a shipping container, to makes it easy to transport; a base constructed from thousands of plastic bottles collected by slum residents will be added once it reaches its destination.
It’s due to be shipped out to a slum in Manila in the autumn. Here’s the architect’s mock-up of the city app in situ.
Olthuis’ interest in water-based construction was inspired partly by his home country: around half the Netherlands lies below sea level, and massive amounts of water are pumped away daily to keep the country high and dry. But it’s not the low countries that could benefit most from this kind of architecture: it’s the rapidly growing and slum-packed cities of the developing world, and wet slums – those edging onto bodies of water, and so at risk of rising sea levels – were forefront in Olthuis’ mind when he came up with the idea:
“They’re some of the hardest areas to help, because they’re so close to the water,” he says. “People are unwilling to invest in development that could flood, or just wash away.” His hope is that these City Apps could help change that: the units they would rise with sea levels if an area floods, and could be moved elsewhere if necessary. This first app was funded by the prize money from the 2012 Architecture and Sea Level Rise Award, the studio and other sponsors; in future, the studio is hoping to build them then lease them out to NGOs and development agencies for a low monthly cost.
There’s a case for helping the world’s 1.1bn slum dwellers to more permanent settlements, rather than just improving the slums, of course. But in Olthuis’ view, “slums aren’t going to go away, so the only thing we can do is upgrade their prosperity”. There are a few creases to iron out first, though – at the moment, the studio may have to pay tax on transporting the Manila app, and are meeting with embassies to try and avoid this “real waste of money”.
While the city app will be run by a local organisation once in Manila, Olthuis is keen to stay involved. “The most important thing is that we can measure the app’s effects, and check how it’s working.” He wants to build hundreds, even thousands, more apps for different purposes around the world: 90 per cent of the world’s largest cities border a body of water, whether it be river, lake, or sea, so the project’s applications could stretch far beyond wet slums. Because of their floating foundations, the apps are relatively stable, though they may not work so well in waters prone to violent waves.
For Olthuis, floating architecture offers a way to use the dead space off the coasts of cities. It also offers flexibility, as units can be moved to a different location, or even another city, as the needs of the surrounding area change – just as you can change the apps on your phone.
Marina World, March 2013
Nestled in the Indian Ocean between Minicoy Island and the Chagos Archipelago, the Maldives comprise a chain of 26 atolls made up of islands and reefs. Tropical weather, white sand and clear water make the islands a popular holiday destination and a haven for divers but, while the surrounding ocean teems with life, home to coral reefs, eels, sharks, turtles, dolphins, manta rays and over 1,100 other species of fish, rising sea levels pose serious threat. Charlotte Niemiec reports on an ambitious community and tourism project aimed at keeping the Maldives afloat.
The average ground level in the Maldives is just 1.5m and the island’s president, Mohammed Nasheed, has warned that even a ‘small rise’ in sea levels would eradicate large parts of the area. Envisioning a future for its people of “climate refugees living in tents for decades” the Maldivian Government has teamed up with Netherlands- based company Dutch Docklands International in a Joint Venture Project to build a solution to the problem in the form of man-made floating islands. The ‘5 Lagoons Project’ will provide housing, entertainment and guest complexes for visitors to the Maldives, expanding its footprint and further bolstering the area’s tourist economy.
A star-shaped hotel and conference centre – the ‘Green Star’ – symbolises the Maldives route to combat climate change. Its many five- star facilities will include pools, beaches and restaurants. A ‘plug and play’ system allows for each leg of the star to be removed for easy refurbishment and a temporary one floated in and placed in position. It is hoped the centre will play host to international conferences on sea level rise, climate change and environmental issues. It is scheduled to open in 2015.
Across the water, relaxation is to be found at an 18-hole floating golf course. With panoramic ocean views, golfers can enjoy the driving range, short games practice areas, putting greens and a 9 hole par 3 Academy course. A separate area on the island provides romantic homes and townhouses in Venetian style, in a village offering boutiques, ice cream parlours, restaurants, bars and ultra- luxury palatial style villas. Movement around the island – assembled in archipelago form – is via bridges or glass tunnels in the ocean, which give guests the opportunity to enjoy the area’s sea life up close. A marina of international standard will also be built on this island.
Amillarah – the Maldivian word for private island – will consist of 43 floating islands offering luxury $10 million villas for sale to the public. Facilities will include a private beach, pool and green area, private jetty and small pavilion on a purpose-built island (the shape of which the buyer can design in advance), situated in the centre of an exclusive, large private water plot just a short swim away from the coral reefs. For those who baulk at the price tag, a separate development, the ‘Ocean Flower’ offers less expensive housing starting at $1 million. The Ocean Flower is located upmarket in the North Male atoll, 20 minutes by boat from the capital and airport, and will offer villas on three different scales. All have private pools and terraces and are fully furnished, while shared facilities include a beach, shops, restaurants, a diving centre, spa, swimming pools and easy access to the surrounding private islands. The Ocean Flower will open mid-2014, with construction beginning soon. Finally, the White Lagoon project consists of four individual ring-shaped floating islands each with 72 water villas connected. The rings function as beach-boulevards with white sand and greenery. A marina will be built inside the rings and a variety of restaurants, bars, shops and boutiques will be available.
Dutch Docklands is the master developer of the project and it controls the design, engineering, financing, construction and sales. It has appointed Waterstudio.nl as its architectural firm. Dutch Docklands CEO, Paul van de Camp, is excited about the project, viewing it as the beginning of large- scale floating projects in the area. He believes that if the project is successful, it will have proved the ability of the Maldives to combine the preservation of vulnerable marine life while expanding land for the reinforcement of tourism and urban developments at the same time. The project is an equally important one for the company and will be used as a benchmark business model for concepts around the globe. The joint venture with the Maldivian Government, which brings the needs and demands of the nation together with the commercial aspirations of Dutch Docklands is, van de Camp says, a very solid and long- lasting basis for such a big project.
Understandably, there are significant challenges to be faced when building on water. The biggest, van de Camp explains, is logistics: “We build most of the floating structure off-site, in a production yard outside the Maldives, and larger parts in the shipyards around the Indian Ocean and in the Netherlands. To get all the floating products there at the right moment (‘just-in-time’ management) at the final location ready for assembling is a pretty tough task.”
However, building on the ocean also has distinct advantages over building on land, as Dutch Docklands’ co- founder Koen Olthuis explained last year at the UP Experience Conference in Houston, USA. In the open ocean, tsunami waves are mere ripples beneath a structure that floats; water is the perfect shock absorber to seismic waves; and concerns over sea-level rise are eliminated when your home rises with it.
The islands will be constructed using patented technologies, which include the use of very lightweight Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) components and strong concrete structures. In line with Dutch Docklands’ focus on ‘scarless developments’, the materials used are environmentally-friendly, causing hardly any impact to marine life. Paul van de Camp emphasises that any possible impact on the environment is noticed upfront, while the design is on the drawing board. Using the expertise of marine specialists, marine engineers and environmental consultants, the design is adjusted at the first sign of negative impact.
At a cost of over $1 billion and funded by private shareholders, the developments are luxury resorts, catering for the more elite visitor. But van de Camp explains that the 5 Lagoons Project aims to provide a whole range of resort and business activities from reasonably-priced to ultra-luxurious. The Green Star hotel will provide the best-priced rooms, with the floating palaces in the golf course at the top end of the market.
With headquarters in The Netherlands, Dutch Docklands has a long and varied history with water. Its home country has battled against water for centuries – 20% of the country lies below sea level and water is controlled using dikes and canals. Koen Olthuis has a vision of the future in which we do not fight water but live with it and upon it. A man inspired by out-of-the- box inventions such as the elevator, which allowed cities to build up rather than span out horizontally, Olthuis sees water as another platform on which to build. It is his belief that, as so many of the world’s cities lie close to water, we should utilise this space and not just defer to the argument that there is no more space. Paul van de Camp shares this vision of a future in which floating developments are commonplace, creating new space and saving threatened ocean nations.
Quartz, Siraj Datoo, Aug 2013
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis specializes in building things that float. His structures, he concedes, use a similar technology to oil rigs. Yet Olthuis’s focus is elsewhere—on combating rising sea levels, floods, and a growing world population. As he outlined in a TEDx Warwick talk last year, the work he’s doing is quite literally putting land where there wasn’t any before.
Olthuis is the founder of architectural firm Waterstudio.NL, and as a native Dutchman, he often cites his own country’s history as inspiration. “In Holland, we have always been fighting against the water… 50% is under sea level,” he said in his talk. Yet he finds this ongoing battle with water “strange”, arguing that it makes the country susceptible to danger. “What if something breaks?” he said in a phone call with Quartz. His solution: “Why don’t we just use the water?”
His projects include designing homes in Holland, schools in slum neighborhoods in Bangladesh, “amphibious houses” in Colombia, a star-shaped conference center, and a 32-island golf course (with, yes, underwater glass tunnels linking the islands) in the Maldives. He’s also looking to sign a contract to design villas in Florida.
How does it work?
There are three main elements here. The floating base:
[It] is the same technology as we use in Holland. It’s made up of concrete caisson, boxes, a shoebox of concrete. We fill them with styrofoam. So you get unsinkable floating foundations.And the bit on top?
The house itself is the same as a normal house, the same material. Then you want to figure out how to get water and electricity and remove sewage and use the same technology as cruise ships.
How it is anchored to the ground?
In Dubai, they just put sand into the water and made artificial islands. Once you put sand into the water, you can’t go back. We can go back after 150 years and there’s no damage to the habitat.
That’s impressive. So what do you do exactly?
[In the Maldives], these houses are connected to a floating boulevard… Those are connected to the sea bed with telescopic piles and as the boulevard rises up from sea level and the house rises up.And all that means that if there’s a rise in the sea level, due to a flood or tsunami, the island will just rise?
Yes.
“We don’t believe in donating money,” he tells me. “It didn’t work in the history [sic] and it won’t work in the future.” When you give money to charity, he argues, you rarely know what impact it has had.
His response to this is the City Apps Foundation. Instead of donating money for food and aid, companies provide financing for “apps”—interchangeable, prefabricated units such as classrooms, social housing, first-aid stations, or even parking lots. Like the apps on a smartphone, they’re designed to be easy to install and launch with the minimum of fuss. After an initial free trial, schools, governments and local municipalities can lease specific “apps” for a monthly fee. The fees yield a return for the investors, and when the apps are no longer needed they can simply be packed away and assembled in another city. The foundation has raised funding from a number of Dutch companies, and Olthuis and his company provide the technology.
The foundation’s first major project is a school in a slum in Dhaka. Olthuis says that slums have specific problems that appeal to him—in particular their instability. At any moment “the government can say that we’ll take the slums out or landlords might kick them out,” so slum-dwellers tend not to invest in their communities.
City Apps gives power to these neighborhoods, Olthuis argues, especially because they are often situated on the edge of water. In Dhaka, the school app will be a white container that stands out from the rest of the slum to create what Olthuis, perhaps inadvisedly, calls a “shock and awe effect”. The schools will contain iPads for use by the students, and women will use the space for evening classes. Within 12 weeks, the schools will have been built, transported to Dhaka, assembled and ready to use. If the community is forced to move, the school can move too with relative ease.
Olthuis says there are two ways that the City Apps foundation is a better system for investors:
It provides accountability. Cameras inside the containers will allow investors in the project to show off the fruits of their social spending to clients or shareholders in real time.
Although the initial school app will be free, slum-dwellers will have to pay to lease extra apps, such as what Olthuis calls “functions” for sanitation (this could be anything from a toilet to a fully-fledged bathroom) — or even just the ability to print. If the slum no longer wants a specific “function”, it can be easily taken away and used elsewhere. Investors get money if more “apps” are leased
“[It’s] stupid that each [sic] four years, we build complete neighborhoods and then they leave it there.” And it kind of is. The British government spent almost £2 billion ($3.1 billion) on venues alone for the Olympics and Paralympics village for London’s 2012 games. Instead, Olthuis suggests, Olympic cities should lease floating stadiums and property. This could be assembled in advance of the games and packed away afterwards, and would be far cheaper than creating new stadiums and neighborhoods every four years. While it would certainly remove some of the sparkle around the event, it would cut a good deal of waste. In Britain, talk of how the OIympic venues could be used after the games has already faded away.
Work on the “ocean flower”, part of a project that will see 185 new floating villas, has already begun and the first villa will be inhabitable as soon as December this year. Americans, Chinese, Russians and even hotel operators have already forked out the $1 million cost per villa.
Olthuis has a contract with for 42 amillarah islands (private villas in the Maldivian language). These will be 2,500 sq. meters (26,910 sq. feet), and, at $12 million-$14 million, for the “stupidly rich”, Olthuis lets slip.
You can take a speedboat-taxi from the airport in 15 minutes or a three-person “U-boat” submarine will get you there in 40. (Russian president Vladimir Putin was seen modelling the five-person version.) Alternatively, spend three weeks learning how to maneuver a U-boat and a license is yours.
What if there was a hotel-cum-conference center in the middle of the ocean? Construction on this complex will begin towards the beginning of 2014 and with it come some interesting innovations. While a starfish has five “legs”, Olthuis’s company will build six. This means that if a section needs to be renovated, they could replace one leg with the spare (kept at the harbor) within three days instead of having to cordon off the area for months.
In his TEDx Warwick talk, Olthuis jokes that even if you’re on honeymoon in the Maldives, after a few days of glorious swimming, you kind of just want to play golf. And while the golf course might not be swarming with newly-weds, it might attract a new set of tourists from Russia and China.
Even if you’re not much of a golfer, it’s likely you’ll make a trip just to walk in the underground tunnels between the islands. And yes, the tunnel will be transparent.
Colombia has three big flood zones and every time there’s a flood, local municipalities have to pay a lot of money in compensation, according to Olthuis. To combat this, the local government has signed up Waterstudio.NL to build 1500 “amphibian” houses with a floating foundation.
So while the above photo depicts a floating house in a dry season, the house will simply rise in a wet season. While it’s a fairly simple concept, it has radical implications.
Olthuis’s biggest impact so far has been in Holland, where a number of water villas have already been completed. With over 50% of the country below sea level, this provided the perfect playground for his concepts to become a reality
The petropolis of tomorrow, Neeraj Bhatia & Mary Casper, 2013
In recent years, Brazil has discovered vast quantities of petroleum deep within its territorial waters, inciting the construction of a series of cities along its coast and in the ocean. We could term these developments as Petropolises, or cities formed from resource extraction. The Petropolis of Tomorrow is a design and research project, originally undertaken at Rice University that examines the relationship between resource extraction and urban development in order to extract new templates for sustainable urbanism. Organized into three sections: Archipelago Urbanism, Harvesting Urbanism, and Logistical Urbanism, which consist of theoretical, technical, and photo articles as well as design proposals, The Petropolis of Tomorrow elucidates not only a vision for water-based urbanism of the floating frontier city, it also speculates on new methodologies for integrating infrastructure, landscape, urbanism and architecture within the larger spheres of economics, politics, and culture that implicate these disciplines.
Articles by: Neeraj Bhatia, Luis Callejas, Mary Casper, Felipe Correa, Brian Davis, Farès el-Dahdah, Rania Ghosn, Carola Hein, Bárbara Loureiro, Clare Lyster, Geoff Manaugh, Alida C. Metcalf, Juliana Moura, Koen Olthuis, Albert Pope, Maya Przybylski, Rafico Ruiz, Mason White, Sarah Whiting
Photo Essays by: Garth Lenz, Peter Mettler + Eamon Mac Mahon, Alex Webb
Research/ Design Team: Alex Gregor, Joshua Herzstein, Libo Li, Joanna Luo, Bomin Park, Weijia Song, Peter Stone, Laura Williams, Alex Yuen
Co-published with Architecture at Rice, Vol. 47
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.
