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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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Het architectenbureau van Koen Olthuis heeft een drijvende stad ontworpen voor de Malediven – daar moeten 20.000 mensen kunnen wonen

By Cheryl Teh
Business Insider
2022.June.22

He Nederlandse architectenbureau Waterstudio heeft een ontwerp gemaakt voor een drijvende stad in de Malediven.
De stad bestaat uit een netwerk van 5.000 drijvende gebouwen, waaronder ook winkels en scholen, en kan 20.000 mensen huisvesten.
De verwachting is dat bewoners begin 2024 hun intrek kunnen nemen op de eiland-stad.
Lees ook: Deze 41-jarige ontwerpster maakt met haar bedrijf in Bali enorme junglewoningen van bamboe die meer dan een miljoen kunnen kosten

Het Nederlandse architectenbureau Waterstudio heeft een ontwerp gemaakt voor een drijvende stad in de Malediven, een eilandengroep in de Indische Oceaan.

De Floating City van de Malediven, zoals het ontwerp heet, is een uitgestrekte groep van modulaire drijvende platforms in het patroon van hersenkoraal.

Koen Olthuis, de oprichter van Waterstudio, vertelt aan Insider dat het project een samenwerking is tussen de Dutch Docklands, een lokale projectontwikkelaar en de plaatselijke overheid in Male. Een van de doelen is om meer ruimte vrij te maken voor woningbouw.

Olthuis vertelt dat de bouw van de drijvende stad ook een oplossing kan bieden voor de dreigende stijging van zeespiegel waar komende generaties mee te maken krijgen.

“Het wordt een begaanbare stad met drijvende straten. Er worden boten ingezet voor het vervoer van goederen en mensen binnen de stad en naar de hoofdstad Male”, aldus Olthuis.

Hij geeft aan dat de kosten van levensonderhoud in de stad zelf vergelijkbaar zouden zijn met die op het land in de Malediven. “In 2027 zouden er 20.000 mensen moeten wonen in 5.000 huizen,” schat Olthuis.

Volgens CNN zal de stad zijn eerste woningen deze maand nog openstellen voor bezichtiging. De prijzen starten bij omgerekend 142.500 euro voor een studio-appartement, en lopen op tot 237.500 euro voor een eengezinswoning. De ontwikkelaars verwachten dat de bewoners begin 2024 hun intrek zullen nemen op het eiland. De hele stad moet in 2027 klaar zal zijn.

Volgens het persbericht van de projectontwikkelaar zal de stad bestaan uit modulaire, zeshoekige segmenten die verbonden zijn met een buitenste ring van barrière-eilanden. Het onderste deel van de stad wordt bevestigd aan stabilisatoren die bescherming bieden tegen de golven en stroming.

Het idee voor de drijvende stad op de Malediven is vergelijkbaar met dat van Oceanix, een concept voor een drijvende stad die bestaat uit onderling verbonden platforms. Busan, een havenstad in Zuid-Korea, gaf toestemming voor het door de VN gesteunde project, dat plaats zal bieden aan ongeveer 12.000 mensen.

Patrick Verkooijen, CEO van de klimaatdenktank Global Center on Adaptation, vertelde CNN dat hij het idee van een drijvende stad een goede oplossing vindt voor de stijgende zeespiegel.

“De kosten van het niet aanpassen aan deze overstromingsrisico’s zijn buitengewoon hoog”, aldus Verkooijen tegen CNN. “We hebben een keuze te maken: of we stellen uit en betalen de prijs, of we plannen en groeien. Drijvende kantoren en drijvende gebouwen maken deel uit van deze planning voor het klimaat van de toekomst.”

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the maldives is building a floating ‘island city’ in response to rising sea levels

WATERSTUDIO + DUTCH DOCKLANDS BUILD MALDIVES FLOATING CITY

Architecture firm Waterstudio has teamed up with Dutch Docklands to develop a floating city that responds efficiently to the threat of the rising seas in the Maldives. The project, which was created in collaboration with the local government, is located in a warm-water lagoon just minutes away from the Maldivian capital. This first-of-its-kind ‘island city’ consists of 5,000 floating units, including dwellings, restaurants, businesses, and schools, with canals running between them in a pattern similar to brain coral. Inhabitants are expected to begin moving into the complex in early 2024 while the entire city will be completed by 2027.

MODELED AFTER AN ACTUAL BRAIN CORAL

The Maldives Floating City serves as the beginning of a new era in which Maldivians return to the ocean through durable, environmentally friendly floating constructions. The newly unveiled project features a unique nature-inspired road and water canal system modeled after the efficient structure of actual brain coral. In this way, the complex projects and stimulates coral growth by creating blue ecosystems above and beneath the sea surface. Artificial coral banks will be linked to the city’s underbelly, encouraging natural coral growth. The lagoon’s submerged and protected coral reefs will act as a natural wave breaker, providing occupants with comfort and safety when combined with the interconnected grid of floating structures.

A SEA-LEVEL RISE-PROOF URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The architects at Waterstudio and the developers at Dutch Docklands envision the floating metropolis as a next-generation structure that balances sustainability and livability. The project is being created as a practical solution to the hard reality of sea-level rise, rather than just a future ideal. Its smart infrastructure and dynamic, adaptable configuration can respond to weather and climate change, as the city will rise with the tide.

The structure protects and enriches the pristine maritime ecosystem by employing innovative sustainable development technology and ecological best practices. The project seeks to deliver security and development space to the Maldives, as well as a mix of green technology, safety, commercial feasibility, and a healthy new lifestyle that will serve as the foundation for future floating cities. As a result, the Maldivians’ fate will be rewritten from climate exiles to climate innovators.

A modern marvel? Floating city rising from the Indian Ocean

By The Daily Star
2022.June.21

Maldives Floating City

Photo courtesy: Waterstudio.NL/Dutch Docklands

A city is rising from the Indian Ocean.

The floating city large enough to house 20,000 people is being built in a turquoise lagoon – just 10 minutes by boat from Male, the Maldivian capital, CNN reports.

The city will be built in the shape of a brain coral, with 5,000 floating units including houses, restaurants, shops, and schools with canals running in between. The first units will be unveiled this month, with residents expected to begin moving in early 2024, and the entire city is expected to be finished by 2027, the CNN report said.

The project, a collaboration between property developer Dutch Docklands and the Maldives government, is not intended to be a wild experiment or a futuristic vision. It is being built as a practical solution to the harsh reality of sea-level rise, CNN said.

Maldives Floating City

Photo courtesy: Waterstudio.NL/Dutch Docklands

The Maldives is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. Eighty percent of its land area is less than one meter above sea level, and with levels expected to rise up to a meter by the end of the century, nearly the entire country could be submerged, said the report published on June 20, 2022.

But a floating city could rise with the sea

This is “new hope” for the more than half a million people of the Maldives, said Koen Olthuis, founder of architecture firm Waterstudio that designed the city. “It can prove that there is affordable housing, large communities, and normal towns on the water that are also safe. They (Maldivians) will go from climate refugees to climate innovators,” he told CNN.

According to the report, the project’s goal is to build a city for 20,000 people in less than five years. Other floating city plans, including Oceanix City in Busan, South Korea, and a series of floating islands in the Baltic Sea developed by the Dutch company Blue21 have been announced, but none compete with this scale and timeframe of this project.

The Maldives’ capital is vastly overcrowded, with no room for expansion other than into the sea, it said.

Maldives Floating City

Photo courtesy: Waterstudio.NL/Dutch Docklands

The modular units are built in a nearby shipyard and then towed to the floating city. They are then attached to a large underwater concrete hull that is screwed to the seabed on telescopic steel stilts that allow it to gently fluctuate with the waves. The coral reefs that surround the city act as a natural wave breaker, stabilizing it and preventing seasickness.

Olthuis told CNN that the structure’s potential environmental impact was rigorously assessed by local coral experts and approved by government authorities before construction began. Artificial coral banks made of glass foam are connected to the city’s underside to support marine life, which he claims helps stimulate coral growth naturally.

There will be electricity, powered predominantly by solar generated on site, and sewage will be treated locally and repurposed as plant manure. Instead of air conditioning, the city will use deep water sea cooling, which involves pumping cold water from the deep sea into the lagoon, thereby saving energy, the report said.

The goal is for the city to be self-sufficient and to perform all of the same functions as a city on land.

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De Malediven krijgen een drijvende stad in de buurt van de hoofdstad Male

By Roccarainola
2022.June.20

De archipel van de Malediven, ongeveer 1.000 kilometer ten zuidwesten van Sri Lanka, in de Indische Oceaan, wordt lange tijd beschouwd als een van de landen die het meest zijn blootgesteld aan de gevolgen van klimaatverandering: 80% van het grondgebied ligt binnen een meter boven de zeespiegel en naar schatting zou door de stijgende zeespiegel een groot deel ervan tegen het einde van de eeuw volledig onder water kunnen staan. Onder de mogelijke oplossingen waarmee de lokale autoriteiten zijn begonnen te experimenteren, is er een heel bijzondere: de bouw van een nieuwe drijvende stad die tien minuten per schip zal stijgen van de hoofdstad Malé en die na voltooiing plaats zal bieden aan maximaal 20 duizend inwoners.

Het initiatief is ontstaan uit de samenwerking tussen de regering van de Malediven en het Nederlandse vastgoedontwikkelingsbedrijf Dutch Docklands; het project werd uitgevoerd door het in Nederland gevestigde architectenbureau Waterstudio, dat in het verleden betrokken was bij het ontwerpen van honderden drijvende woningen, kantoren, scholen en gezondheidscentra over de hele wereld .

De nieuwe drijvende stad zal verrijzen in een lagune van ongeveer 2 vierkante kilometer en zal duizenden gebouwen herbergen die zijn gebouwd op een reeks “drijvende eilanden”, waaronder huizen, restaurants, winkels, scholen en hotels. De gebouwen zullen worden uitgerust met elektriciteit die wordt verkregen uit fotovoltaïsche systemen en zullen beschikken over airconditioningsystemen met zeewater , die het water dat uit grote diepten wordt gepompt gebruiken om de kamers te koelen. Op de eilanden, gescheiden door verschillende kanalen, kunt u zich te voet, per fiets of met elektrische scooters verplaatsen.

De drijvende gebouwen worden op een locatie in het gebied gebouwd en vervolgens de lagune in gesleept, waar ze worden verbonden met een betonnen platform dat door telescopische stalen pylonen aan de zeebodem is bevestigd. Zowel deze structuur als het koraalrif rond de lagune zullen het mogelijk maken om de drijvende stad stabiliteit te geven, waardoor de trillingen die door de golven worden veroorzaakt, worden verminderd.

Eind juni worden de eerste gebouwen opgeleverd en begin 2024 kunnen de eerste bewoners er hun intrek nemen: het doel is om binnen vijf jaar een zelfvoorzienende stad te creëren die functioneert alsof ze op het vasteland staat. eind 2027.

Het is al lang bekend dat de Malediven door de klimaatverandering in het water dreigen te komen te staan en tegen 2100 te verdwijnen. Het lijkt echter nogal ingewikkeld om concrete en haalbare oplossingen te vinden om de noodsituatie op lokaal niveau op te lossen, vooral gezien het feit dat volgens verschillende analyses de toezeggingen die tot nu toe op mondiaal niveau zijn gedaan om vervuilende emissies te verminderen en zogenaamde koolstofneutraliteit te bereiken , niet voldoende om een verdere stijging van de temperatuur tegen het einde van de eeuw te voorkomen, met catastrofale gevolgen voor de hele planeet.

Voorlopig is een van de meest ambitieuze projecten die door de regering van de Malediven zijn gelanceerd, de bouw van het kunstmatige eiland Hulhumalé , dat ook een paar kilometer ten noorden van Malé ligt en de “City of Hope” is genoemd. Net als de nieuwe drijvende stad, was het in de eerste plaats ontworpen om de mensen te huisvesten die vandaag in de hoofdstad wonen – een van de dichtstbevolkte steden ter wereld – en degenen die in de toekomst misschien geen huis meer hebben. Zijn project vertoonde echter enkele opmerkelijke beperkingen, zoals het risico op schade aan het mariene milieu en het probleem van afvalbeheer.

Koen Olthuis, uitvinder van Waterstudio, vertelde CNN dat de milieu-impact van de drijvende stad zorgvuldig is geëvalueerd in samenwerking met mariene biologen en overheden, en dat het nieuwe project zal aantonen dat er “betaalbare huisvesting, uitgebreide gemeenschappen en veilige steden, ook op het water ».

Ook Patrick Verkooijen, hoofd van het Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), een internationale organisatie die zich bezighoudt met het evalueren van mogelijke oplossingen voor adaptatie aan klimaatverandering, lijkt het daarmee eens te zijn. Volgens Verkooijen kan het bouwen van drijvende gebouwen een functionele en economisch duurzame strategie zijn om het probleem van de stijgende zee aan te pakken: er moet echter nog veel gebeuren om dit soort projecten op grotere schaal en op een steeds efficiëntere en snellere manier te bouwen.

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Koen Olthuis and Waterstudio.NL begin construction of the radical ‘floating city’ in the Maldives as a benchmark for future vibrant communities

Global Design News
2022.March.23

Male, Maldives

Koen Olthuis and Waterstudio in cooperation with Netherlands-based Dutch Docklands and the Government of The Maldives construction is underway for this first-of-its-kind “island city,” offering a revolutionary approach to modern sustainable living perched against a backdrop of the azure Indian Ocean.

The project is the world’s first true floating island city—a futuristic dreamscape finally poised to become reality. In development for more than a decade, MFC will feature thousands of residences.

All waterfront, floating along a flexible, functional grid across a 200-hectare lagoon.

For centuries, native people from Asia to the Americas have made their lives on the water.

Whether perched atop lakes, in streams, the ocean or the sea, far-sighted pioneers have worked with the waves to support their families, homes and communities.

Contemporary property developers have long eyed the planet’s unique “floating islands”—envying them for their utility, ingenuity and sustainability.

But translating these local dwellings into modern, scalable, commercially-viable real estate has always appeared beyond reach.

In development for more than a decade, MFC will feature thousands of residences along an all waterfront, floating along a flexible, functional grid across a 200-hectare lagoon.

Inspired by traditional Maldivian sea-faring culture and developed in close cooperation with Maldivian authorities.

MFC homes will eventually be joined by hotels, restaurants, stylish boutiques, and a world-class marina.

Maldives Floating City is the first of its kind across the globe – developed to equally embrace sustainability and livability.

While attempts at floating cities have been tried before, none have featured MFC’s most compelling selling points: Full-scale technical, logistical, and legal expertise.

By partnering with the Government of the Maldives, MFC not only offers the most.

This Dutch Docklands and Government of Maldives ambitious architectural project will offer a world-class ownership structure that is transparent, value-driven, and legally binding.

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Startschuss für die weltweit größte schwimmende Stadt

By Leadersnet
2022.March.15

Die Maldives Floating City soll bis 2027 errichtet werden. Eine Milliarde Dollar wird investiert.

Die bereits 2009, zunächst als Konzept, entwickelte Maldives Floating City soll in den kommenden Jahren realisiert werden. Sie soll aus rund 5.000 neuen Häusern, zwei Luxusresorts, einem Yachthafen und mehreren Einkaufszentren bestehen. Eine Milliarde Dollar soll in das Vorhaben fließen.

Die schwimmende Stadt, deren Fertigstellung etwa fünf Jahre dauern soll, soll schlussendlich autark funtionieren und auch Krankenhäuser, Schulen und vielfältige Freizeiteinrichtungen umfassen. Erneuerbare Energiequellen sollen alle Bereiche mit Strom versorgen, ganz im Sinne der Regierung, die Malediven bis 2030 zu einer Nation mit Zero Emissions zu machen.

Optisch präsentiert sich die City bunt, wobei die geometrischen Muster Korallen widerspiegeln sollen. Erste Preise sind bereits durchgesickert: Eine 100 Quadratmeter Wohnung wird 250.000 Euro kosten. Ausländische Käufer bekommen angeblich eine permanente Aufenthaltsgenehmigung.

Um die Lagunenwellen zu reduzieren, wird das Bauvorhaben von einem Ring von Barriereinseln umgeben sein, die auch als Wellenbrecher wirken sollen. Mehr als 80 Prozent der Fläche des Landes liegen weniger als einen Meter über dem Meeresspiegel. Die Malediven gehören damit zu den Ländern, die am stärksten vom steigenden Meeresspiegel bedroht sind. Die Hauptinsel Malé wurde schon um ein Viertel vergrößert, auch für die Flughafeninsel Hulhule sowie die Insel Hulhumalé, auf der ebenso ein ganz neuer Stadtteil entsteht, wurden bereits Aufschüttungen vorgenommen.

“Best Future Mega Project”

Das Projekt Maldives Floating City wird auf der Mipim Immobilienmesse in Cannes präsentiert und ist auch für einen Award in der Kategorie “Best Future Mega Project” nominiert. (jw)

www.maldivesfloatingcity.com

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