Architecture

The BIG plan to create a floating city for 10,000 people

The BIG plan to create a floating city for 10,000 people
Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres)
Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres)
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Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres)
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Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres)
Oceanix City would float on pre-fabricated platforms
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Oceanix City would float on pre-fabricated platforms 
Oceanix City would include neighborhoods with buildings made from bamboo
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Oceanix City would include neighborhoods with buildings made from bamboo
Oceanix City would focus on communal farming
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Oceanix City would focus on communal farming
Oceanix City would feature seaweed, oysters, mussel, scallop and clam farming beneath sea level
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Oceanix City would feature seaweed, oysters, mussel, scallop and clam farming beneath sea level
Residents of Oceanix City would get around on electric vehicles
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Residents of Oceanix City would get around on electric vehicles 
Oceanix City was created in collaboration with non-profit Oceanix and MIT's Center for Ocean Engineering
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Oceanix City was created in collaboration with non-profit Oceanix and MIT's Center for Ocean Engineering
Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres)
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Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres)
View gallery - 8 images

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has experience producing floating architecture but its latest proposal is on a much larger scale than before. In collaboration with non-profit Oceanix and MIT's Center for Ocean Engineering, the firm has unveiled an ambitious concept for a floating city with a population of up to 10,000.

The Oceanix City proposal was created as part of UN-Habitat's New Urban Agenda and was first unveiled during a meeting at the United Nations that also involved the Explorers Club, an American multi-disciplinary science society. The impetus behind the project is ongoing concern about rising sea levels and climate change.

"By 2050, 90 percent of the world's largest cities will be exposed to rising seas," says the press release. "The vast majority of coastal cities will be impacted by coastal erosion and flooding, displacing millions of people, while destroying homes and infrastructure."

Oceanix City would include neighborhoods with buildings made from bamboo
Oceanix City would include neighborhoods with buildings made from bamboo

If it was built – and as far as we know there are no immediate plans to do so – Oceanix City would measure 75 hectares (185 acres), spread over floating platforms. The idea is that the floating platforms would be prefabricated on land and grouped into clusters of six to create a "village" of up to 1,650 residents. A total of six villages would then be grouped together around a central harbor.

All buildings would be kept below seven stories-high to ensure a low center of gravity and mitigate the effects of high winds. They would also be made from sustainable materials like bamboo and feature large flat roofs to aid shading and offer space for solar panels.

There would be a focus on farming too, both on land and, below sea level, floating reefs, seaweed, oysters, mussel, scallop and clam farming. Residents would get around on electric vehicles.

Oceanix City would feature seaweed, oysters, mussel, scallop and clam farming beneath sea level
Oceanix City would feature seaweed, oysters, mussel, scallop and clam farming beneath sea level

The sea is our fate – it may also be our future," says BIG founder Bjarke Ingels. "The first sustainable and self-sustained floating community Oceanix City is designed as a human made ecosystem channeling circular flows of energy, water, food and waste. Oceanix City is a blueprint for a modular maritime metropolis anchored in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

"The additive architecture can grow, transform and adapt organically over time, evolving from a neighborhood of 300 residents to a city of 10,000 – with the possibility of scaling indefinitely to provide thriving nautical communities for people who care about each other and our planet."

Source: BIG

View gallery - 8 images
11 comments
11 comments
guzmanchinky
I think the concept has merit, I would be curious as to how resistant it is to severe weather.
Douglas Bennett Rogers
It could take the place of the "garbage patch" be built of the materials there and be safe from storms. The Sargasso Sea would work, too.
fb36
IMHO, technology of today, is far from what is really needed to build permanent floating cities of future!
Imagine, a super giant (something like 500/1000m tall on each side) floating cube etc, that is made of big & strong standard design titanium pieces (like LEGO)! (So it is unaffected by any storm or rusting etc)!
Building such cities would require invention of fusion tech first, to be able to produce truly massive amounts of titanium cheaply! (Wind & solar power etc would never be enough!)
paul314
And we will not need more than 100,000 or so of these to house the populations of the coastal cities that will be going away in the first round of sea level rise.
Trylon
Reminds me of the old Sea City concept from the 1970s. http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/sea-city.html
CAVUMark
I know where there are still a few parts of the Waterworld plane. Let me know if you need them.
Paulinator
perfect for Nebraska
Buzzclick
I don't know if anyone at BIG realizes that the ocean being flat has no natural buffers from the winds. A storm has the potential to produce enormous swelling ocean waves that would literally create chaos for these 10,000 people, and if these habitats have no way of maneuvering out of a bad situation, all they can do is hope and wait like sitting ducks (pun intended).
This is just another example of (like western medicine) thinking that seeks to relieve the symptom instead of treating the source of the problem. It ain't likely gonna work.
Mother Nature is powerful and has little time for stupid human concepts.
Grumpyrelic
I did have a big diatribe written but I erased It. Suffice to say the Titanic was unsinkable and there was no lasting damage to New Orleans after hurricane Andrew. I wonder who is paying these guys. It sure beats scamming on the internet.
KaiserPingo
Whats the prize for a dam ?
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