Sea levels are rising due to climate change. Many coastal cities are at growing risk of flooding. Architects are trying to react to this development with new ideas, such as floating cities. Architect Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio is constructing a floating city in the Maldives, sustainably cooled with sea water.
By Paola Piacenza
IO Donna
2020.July.25
Sono i nuovi pionieri. Ma questa volta la frontiera che vogliono conquistare è liquida e le case, ipertecnologiche ed ecosostenibili, sono su palafitte. Per i seguaci della filosofia nata in America negli anni ’80, un nuovo capitolo si sta per scrivere nelle acque panamensi. Per chi vuole prenotare, meglio pagare in Bitcoin
La desalinizzazione delle acque, il giardino di coralli artificiali, l’alimentazione a pannelli solari e le colture idroponiche sono dettagli. Significativi, ma dettagli. La vera novità nel progetto che sta prendendo forma nelle acque territoriali panamensi a firma Ocean Builders è la visione del mondo (e del mare) che lo nutre.
All’origine c’era un’idea, e un movimento, nato negli anni ’80, sviluppato nei ’90, ora reso tangibile, chiamato Seasteading, dalla fusione di sea, mare, e homesteading, prendere possesso di una proprietà per viverci in maniera autosufficiente.
Nel rendering, due SeaPod sottocosta.
Finora lo sfruttamento di alcune piattaforme petrolifere o di navi da crociera abbandonate è tutto ciò che ha prodotto. Al più ambizioso dei progetti, la Freedom Ship, una barca lunga un miglio per 50 mila persone che alla fine degli anni ’90 avrebbe dovuto circumnavigare il mondo («Ci stanno ancora lavorando….») aveva preso parte anche il Ceo di Ocean Builders, Grant Romundt che, dall’Idaho, via zoom, racconta a iO Donna a che punto sono i lavori per la costruzione della fabbrica che produrrà i giganteschi “SeaPod”, i baccelli marini, unità di misura dei villaggi su palafitte che stanno per nascere al largo: La pandemia ci ha rallentato, ma non ci siamo mai fermati. La fabbrica ospiterà la più grande stampante 3D dell’America latina, in grado di realizzare un modulo in un week end.
Il primo prototipo di SeaPod, disegnato dagli ingegneri, era brutto, racconta Grant, che si definisce «un amante dell’acqua e della tecnologia». Perciò è stato coinvolto lo studio di architetti più all’avanguardia quando si tratta di costruire sull’acqua, gli olandesi di Waterstudio. Il loro motto è: “Il futuro sostenibile sta oltre il lungomare”. «Ho incontrato Koen Olthuis di Waterstudio a Singapore, e subito ci siamo messi a disegnare come due bambini». Il risultato sono le strutture che vi mostriamo nei rendering in questa pagina, «degne dei Jetsons», il cartoon di Hanna e Barbera – da noi erano I pronipoti – protagonista una famiglia del futuro. Nessun angolo vivo, tre piani attrezzati issati su un palo in grado di resistere al moto ondoso: «Nella versione da alto mare, i test sono stati fatti su onde di cinque metri, ma per ora lavoriamo sottocosta» spiega Grant.
Così era stato in Thailandia, il capitolo precedente nella storia dei Sea Builders. Ma l’idea che una città galleggiante potesse sorgere al largo di Phuket e che, un giorno, i suoi residenti potessero reclamarne la sovranità aveva spaventato le autorità di Bangkok e l’ingegnere capo del progetto era stato costretto a levare le ancore in grande fretta. «Le novità spaventano» chiosa Grant. «Ma vivere sul mare è un’ambizione che l’uomo ha da sempre, simile a quella che spinse i pionieri verso l’America. Anche questa in fondo è la conquista di una frontiera, il mare è una finestra da spalancare, ricca di opportunità per chi ha spirito imprenditoriale. Potrebbe trattarsi di un cambiamento epocale. E noi, che disponiamo dei mezzi necessari per realizzarlo, siamo gli unici in questo momento a lavorarci».
Il bagno del SeaPod.
Vero, lo storico movimento che oggi fa riferimento al Seasteading Institute, alla nostra richiesta di intervista, nella persona della Development director Carly Jackson, ha risposto così: «Siamo una piccola organizzazione no profit, non intendiamo progettare e costruire sistemi da soli. Il nostro ruolo è stato tradizionalmente quello di ricercatori e non abbiamo ingegneri nel nostro personale». Ocean Builders tra i propri finanziatori, in compenso, ha Rüdiger Koch, un ingegnere aerospaziale tedesco in pensione che, ci spiega Grant, «punta a esplorazioni ancora più radicali»: per Koch le piattaforme di seasteading rappresentano il perfetto trampolino per il progetto di “launch loop”, un cavo per lanciare, letteralmente, oggetti nello spazio.
I talenti visionari non mancano, ma nemmeno il senso degli affari fa difetto. Il sito dei Sea Builders offre numerose opzioni di acquisto, affitto o multiproprietà (i Bitcoin sono il mezzo di pagamento preferito, «ma accettiamo anche versamenti via Paypal, e puntiamo, dopo i primi tempi, ad abbattere i costi fino a 195 mila dollari per un modulo, un prezzo alla portata dell’americano medio» spiega Grant).
La cucina, con vista, del SeaPod.
Per essere uno cui non manca il senso pratico e che sta scommettendo su un’idea di futuro da film di fantascienza, Grant però esita a delineare il tipo di società che ha in mente per gli abitanti dei SeaPod. «Persone diverse sono attratte dal progetto per ragioni diverse. Alcuni apprezzano l’aspetto libertario (tra i fondatori del movimento c’era Patri Friedman, anarco-capitalista e nipote del premio Nobel per l’economia, Milton Friedman, ndr). Altri vi hanno visto un’opportunità dopo che in alcuni Paesi il lockdown ha rivelato aspetti autoritari». Per ora, sostiene, loro puntano soprattutto allo sfruttamento turistico: «Decidere di vivere sul mare a tempo pieno è un grande passo, meglio andare per gradi». Chi si occuperà di mantenere l’ordine, dare le linee della governance (o almeno il regolamento di condominio), fornire i servizi essenziali è ancora da definire. E se non dovesse funzionare? «Il nostro sarà diverso da un villaggio terrestre dove le case sono piantate nel terreno. Se costruisci sull’acqua ogni aspetto della vita comunitaria si presta alla sperimentazione. Una comunità può organizzare la raccolta dei rifiuti coi droni, un’altra con le barche. Se penso alla vostra Venezia… credo proprio che potremmo darvi una mano».
By Tommaso Tautonico
InfoBuild
2019.Dec.05
Sarà realizzato in legno lamellare a strati incrociati il primo grattacielo galleggiante al mondo. Alto 40 metri, il progetto è unico e innovativo con ampie vetrate per favorire la luce naturale, sarà destinato ad ospitare uffici, spazi verdi pubblici e un ristorante con terrazza.
a cura di Tommaso Tautonico
Indice degli argomenti:
Rotterdam, la storica città olandese dalle marcate origine nautiche, ospiterà il primo grattacielo al mondo in legno capace di galleggiare. Progettato dallo studio di architettura e design Waterstudio, già noto per altri edifici galleggianti, l’innovativo progetto è basato sull’uso del legno lamellare a strati incrociati, cross laminated timber (CLT).
“Perché il CLT è il miglior materiale nell’architetturagalleggiante?– Perché le costruzioni in legno lamellare sono più leggere rispetto alle strutture in cemento. E poi il legno è una risorsa rinnovabile in grado di assorbire le tensioni, offre una ridondanza elevata e permette connessioni duttili” dichiarano dallo studio diretto dall’architetto Koen Olthuis.
Alta 40 metri, vi starete chiedendo quale segreto si nasconda dietro la sua caratteristica principale: il galleggiamento. “La risposta è molto più semplice di quella che pensate” dichiarano dallo studio. La torre verrà interamente realizzata in legno a strati incrociati, caratteristica che donerà all’intera struttura molta più leggerezza. “Inoltre – continuano i progettisti – costruire con una risorsa rinnovabile come il legno, fornirà alla città di Rotterdam un’immaginesostenibile e all’avanguardia”.
L’architetto Olthuis paragona il design dell’edificio a quello di un foglio di carta i cui lati vengono spinti verso il centro, finché si crea una collinetta, che in questo caso corrisponde al grattacielo.
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Una caratteristica peculiare dell’edificio è la presenza di una serie di colonne V sull’intera facciata, visibili già avvicinandosi alla struttura.
La torre in legno galleggiante ospiterà principalmente uffici e spazi aperti al pubblico. I primi saranno localizzati nella parte più alta, mentre la zona inferiore e il ponte principale saranno adibiti ad usi diversi come una galleria e un bar. Sempre sul ponte inferiore, un ristorante sarà caratterizzato da una splendida terrazza che offrirà una vista mozzafiato sul porto.
Un lussureggiante cortile permetterà ai lavoratori e ai visitatori di godere di aria fresca e pulita di giorno o di notte. L’intera area è progettata per essere uno spazio multifunzionale in grado di ospitare eventi durante tutto l’anno.
Grandi vetrate delimiteranno entrambi i lati dell’edifico, permettendo alla luce naturale di illuminare gli spazi interni e l’ampio atrio centrale. Un modo semplice ma funzionale per godere della luce naturale nel grigiore del tempo olandese.
Gli spazi interni ed esterni verranno abbelliti grazie all’abbondante vegetazione che ritroveremo nei giardini e negli orti che puntellano l’intero edificio, sia all’esterno che all’interno. Lo stesso grattacielo sorgerà su una piattaforma ricoperta da piante e alberi.
By l’édition du soir
2019.Nov.18
Dans le prolongement du Plan climat air énergie de Paris, la municipalité a fait pencher l’architecte belge Vincent Callebaut sur un prototype de ce à quoi pourrait ressembler la capitale française en 2050.
Il a imaginé huit immeubles à placer dans différents arrondissements parisiens afin de lutter contre le phénomène d’îlot de chaleur urbain, tout en augmentant la densité de la ville. Tours dépolluantes, façades en algues, jardins potagers ou ferme verticale composent ces bâtiments futuristes.
Stockolm Royal Seaport (Suède)
Contrairement à beaucoup d’autres qui risquent de ne jamais sortir de terre, le Stockholm Royal Seaport dépasse les simples projections. Initié en 2009, cet écoquartier devrait accueillir 10 000 nouveaux logements d’ici 2030. Il prendra place sur une superficie de 236 hectares où se trouvait une ancienne usine à gaz, au nord de la ville.
Un budget de 60 milliards de couronnes suédoises (un peu plus de 9 milliards d’euros) doit lui permettre de voir le jour. Parmi les points forts, un système de gestion des déchets lié à un réseau de récupération sous-terrain les acheminant vers une unité de traitement. Une innovation qui évite la pollution occasionnée par le passage des camions bennes, et reconvertit l’énergie générée par le passage des déchets pour chauffer les bâtiments.
Smart City Forest (Mexique)
557 hectares pour accueillir 130 000 habitants : pour le compte d’un groupe immobilier mexicain, le cabinet d’architecture Stefano Boeri Architetti a imaginé Smart Forest City, une ville implantée sur un site actuellement utilisé comme carrière de sable pour les hôtels, près de Cancun.
Avec ses toits et ses façades recouverts de végétaux, elle parviendrait à un « équilibre parfait entre la quantité d’espaces verts et l’empreinte du bâtiment » et absorberait 116 000 tonnes de dioxyde de carbone par an. Entourée d’un anneau de panneaux solaires et de champs agricoles irrigués via une conduite maritime sous-marine, la ville serait caractérisée par « une économie circulaire complète », explique le cabinet d’architecture sur son site.
SeaTree (Pays-Bas)
C’est en bordure des grandes villes, en milieu marin, que pourrait être implantée cette structure, entièrement végétalisée et imaginée par le cabinet Waterstudio. Objectif : offrir un habitat supplémentaire à la biodiversité, aussi bien dans l’eau qu’en dehors, afin d’avoir un effet positif sur l’environnement de la ville à proximité en captant ses émissions de carbone.
Réservé aux animaux, à qui il offrirait un refuge, cet « arbre marin » serait amarré au fond de la mer avec un système de câble. L’équivalent d’un grand parc urbain y a été divisé en plusieurs parties, placées verticalement les unes sur les autres.
DragonFly à New York (États-Unis)
Comme pour Paris 2050, c’est l’architecte belge Vincent Callebaut qui a pensé ce prototype futuriste au cœur de New York, entre l’île de Manhattan et le Queens. En forme d’aile de libellule, ces deux tours de 575 mètres de hauts formeraient une gigantesque ferme urbaine. Aux côtés de logements, bureaux et laboratoires de recherches, se trouveraient des potagers urbains et des champs bio. De nombreux systèmes écologiques, allant du recyclage des eaux usées à l’utilisation d’énergies renouvelables, seraient intégrés.
« Afin d’éviter l’asphyxie de la planète et de nourrir ses 9 milliards d’habitants d’ici 2050, il s’agit de réinventer le schéma énergétique traditionnel entre ville et campagne », avance l’architecte dans la présentation du prototype.
By Mirror reporter
2019.Nov.10
The Arkup is a glamorous way to live a life at sea – as long as you can afford it.
Imagine living inside a fully sustainable floating villa – pretty cool right?
Take that and move it to the middle of nowhere and you’ll get the Arkup.
By Kate Baggaley
NBC
From New York to Shanghai, coastal cities around the world are at risk from rising sea levels and unpredictable storm surges. But rather than simply building higher seawalls to hold back floodwaters, many builders and urban planners are turning to floating and amphibious architecture — and finding ways to adapt buildings to this new reality.
Some new buildings, including a number of homes in Amsterdam, are designed to float permanently on shorelines and waterways. Others feature special foundations that let them rest on solid ground or float on water when necessary. Projects range from simple retrofits for individual homes in flood zones to the construction of entire floating neighborhoods — and possibly even floating cities.
“It’s fundamentally for flood mitigation, but in our time of climate change where sea level is rising and weather events are becoming more severe, this is also an excellent adaptation strategy,” says Dr. Elizabeth English, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Ontario. “It takes whatever level of water is thrown at it in stride.”
From ground level, amphibious houses look like ordinary buildings. The key difference lies with their foundations, which function as a sort of raft when the water starts to rise.
In some cases, existing homes can be retrofitted with amphibious foundations to give people in flood-prone areas a less costly alternative to moving or putting their homes on stilts, says English, founder of Buoyant Foundation Project, a nonprofit based in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and Cambridge, Ontario. “What I’m trying to do is to take existing communities and make them more resilient and give them an opportunity to continue to live in the place that they’re intimately connected to,” she says.
There are also new constructions built with amphibious foundations, such as a home designed by Baca Architects on an island in the River Thames in Marlow, England. When waters are low, the house rests on the ground like a conventional building; during floods, it floats on water that flows into a bathtub-shaped outer foundation.
Amphibious architecture isn’t about to displace conventionally designed buildings. But experts say it could become the norm in parts of Virginia, Louisiana, Alaska, and Florida, and other areas that are vulnerable to rising seas. “For some communities this might be a saving grace,” says Illya Azaroff, director of design at New York-based +LAB Architect PLLC and an associate professor of architecture at the New York City College of Technology.
Other architects are taking things a step further and building on the water itself. The Netherlands is a hotspot for such floating construction. Waterstudio, a Rijswijk-based architecture firm, recently designed nine floating homes for the town of Zeewolde. The homes look a bit like oversized floating houseboats.
Waterstudio has also designed a number of floating homes for Amsterdam’s IJBurg neighborhood. Soon these will be joined by a floating housing complex designed by the Dutch firm Barcode Architects and the Danish firm Bjarke Ingels Group. When construction is completed in 2020, the complex will have 380 apartments as well as floating gardens and a restaurant.
Floating buildings and neighborhoods are not a new idea, of course. Vietnam and Peru, among other countries, have had floating communities for centuries. But floating architecture could allow cities around the world to grow and evolve in new ways, says Waterstudio founder Koen Olthuis.
Olthius envisions cities with floating office buildings that can be detached and rearranged as needed. “It can be that you come back to a city after two or three years and some of your favorite buildings are in another location in that city,” he says, adding that buildings might be moved close together to conserve heat and separated when summer arrives.
Floating architecture can do more than prevent flood damage. By allowing the construction of buildings over water, it can give cities additional room to grow. Waterstudio is collaborating with developer Dutch Docklands on a planned community in the Maldives that will include 185 floating villas. The flower-shaped development will have restaurants, shops, and swimming pools.
The firms are also collaborating in the Maldives to build private artificial islands that will be anchored to the seafloor. The idea is to provide new places to live for residents of the low-lying islands, which are at risk of being swallowed up by rising seas. “We will let the commercial project show that the construction can work and then work with the government to help the local community,” Jasper Mulder, vice president of Dutch Docklands, told Travel + Leisure.
The islands are also meant to offer a sheltered new habitat for marine life.
There are also plans for entire floating cities. The Seasteading Institute, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, hopes to attract 200 to 300 residents for a floating village scheduled for completion in the waters off Tahiti by 2020. Homes and other buildings in the community will be constructed atop a dozen or so floating platforms connected by walkways. Eventually, the institute hopes to create communities built from hundreds of platforms with millions of residents.
“I don’t know if amphibious or floating architecture will go that far, but it is within the realm of possibility,” Azaroff says. “The overarching goal is to, one, keep people safe and, two, to allow the natural cycles to continue. Floating architecture allows you to do that in a really profound way that we didn’t have before.”
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CLADmag
from Cladbook2017
Issue 3.2016
PhotoCredits: Waterstudio
Koen Olthuis has been touting the benefits of floating cities for years – and now people are starting to take notice
A number of high-profile projects have recently brought attention to Koen Olthuis’s approach to living on water. Those include the floating Citadel apartment block in the Netherlands and important large-scale leisure projects such as luxury private islands in Dubai, floating hotels and resorts in the Maldives and a snowflake-shaped hotel off Norway. The potential for floating architecture, Olthuis says, goes far beyond one-off developments: it’s an urban planning tool.
“For the past 15 years, I’ve been designing these floating structures,” says Olthuis, who established his design firm Waterstudio in 2003. “When I started, all the other architects thought I was crazy, but now this approach is starting to be adopted by developers. We’re also talking to governments around the world about how floating developments can upgrade and improve their cities.” The big picture in all this, according to Olthuis, is that extending cities beyond the waterfront and indeed further out to sea reduces the pressure on overpopulated urban areas – where 70 per cent of people will live by 2050 – and offers flexible solutions for problems thrown up by rising sea levels and climate change.
How do floating structures work at a city level?
Governments worldwide are looking at how floating developments can improve their cities. I propose a system of modular floating developments – floating urban components that add a particular function to the existing grid of a city. With this system, any question a city asks can be answered immediately. If a city needs parking, bring in floating parking. If it has green issues, bring in floating parks and Sea Trees [Waterstudio’s offshore green structures]. The system is responsive to the needs of dynamic urban communities.
Is floating architecture the way forward for urban living?
It’s project to product. You’ll be able to order buildings in, and sell or lease buildings you don’t want or need. We’ve only explored a fraction of the possibilities, but in the next 10 to 15 years, more and more architecture will start to explore the possibilities of floating developments and it will grow from something that’s a fringe architecture to something that’s mainstream. The stupid thing is that we live in dynamic communities and yet we build static structures. With rapidly changing social structures and technologies, we need flexible cities. I’m not saying we have to build floating cities, but that every city that is next to the water should have at least 5 per cent of its buildings on the water. That would create flexibility.
It’s not the only way, but it’s something that is inevitable. It’s about rethinking and finding solutions for major problems.
What other advantages are there?
We believe green is good but blue is better. Water provides many tools to make more durable and sustainable cities. You have water cooling for the buildings, you have flexibility, you have buildings that rise and fall with the water level, you don’t have to demolish a building that’s no longer needed because you can repurpose it or even sell it. People, developers and politicians are starting to see that this is something that brings in money and solves problems. It’s a feasible way to build better cities.
What do you mean by flexibility?
I don’t mean that you’ll be able to take your house and move to another city or another neighbourhood. I mean flexibility on a larger scale, where cities and urban planners are able to move a complete neighbourhood half a mile or bring in temporary floating functions – like stadiums – and use them for one or two years before they leave for another city. This large-scale flexibility makes sense. Take the Olympic Games. It’s so strange that every four years we build so many hotels and stadiums and only use them for a few weeks. Imagine if as a city you could just lease these floating functions from a developer. Cities who don’t have as much money as London or Rio or Beijing could also host these types of events because it would cost much less money.
Is it something you can foresee happening in the near future ?
Yes, maybe not with stadiums – because we can put them up easily – but with the hotel business, certainly. Qatar has the World Cup in 2022 and they need 35,000 hotel rooms for that event. But if they built 35,000 hotel rooms, within 10 years they’d be empty. So they’re thinking about using cruise ships. As the harbour facility is not big enough, they’re also thinking about the idea of fl oating harbours, or fl oating cruise terminals – something that can facilitate these cruise ships for a few weeks, and then a: er that you can bring the fl oating harbours to another location.
Can you tell us about Amillarah Private Islands?
Yes. With OQYANA Real Estate Company and developers Dutch Docklands, 33 private islands are being built as part of The World Islands project in Dubai. The islands are being sold by Christie’s International Real Estate, with a starting price of US$10m. It’s a really high-end project. The fl oating islands look like tropical islands covered in trees, but in fact they’re more like superyachts. They’re built in Holland and then moved to the location in Dubai and anchored there. They are self-su5cient with their own electricity and their own water. Within the next 10 years there’ll be more development around them, so we’re making it look like its own archipelago. If you fly over, it looks like a series of green islands. OQYANA has a masterplan around Amillarah that includes shops, hotels and all kinds of leisure architecture. This is just the first step of the development, but the beauty of this floating architecture is that it moves very fast. Once you’ve built the islands you can just tow them in and connect them to the boKom, either with cables or telescopic piles and they’re ready. Compare that to the manmade islands at The World. There’s still very liKle built there. It’s di5cult to get labour there, di5cult to build the right foundations and there’s no electricity or water, so developers don’t know how to build there without losing money.
Have any been sold?
Not yet. We’ll have an island there, like a show home, from December this year (2016). With the history of the property market in Dubai, it’s beKer to have the first islands there so people can have a look and understand what it’s all about, especially at the prices people pay in this type of market. I should add that if I only ever build floating islands for the rich then I’m doing something wrong. The start of this story for me was to create a new tool for cities that are facing urbanisation, overpopulation and climate change – and also for cities that need to brand themselves to aKract inhabitants. As well as being able to answer these big, fast-changing urban problems, these floating structures bring a certain character and appeal to a city – a USP.
Why does your concept appeal to resort or hotel developers?
On water, leisure architecture, including resorts and hotels, has the possibility to change. You can adapt and create functions that are not only moveable but also transformative through time, for instance, through the seasons. With seasonal structures you can open up the buildings in the summer, make buildings more dense or more spread out. You can add functions or take them away. To me, it’s one big playing field and we’re trying to work out what it means for the future of leisure architecture and real estate, not just how these things will look, but the economic eUects too.
What kind of economic benefits might there be?
A project we started working on a few years ago was a floating hotel and conference centre for the Maldives – the Greenstar. As well as answering fast-changing urban problems, floating structures bring a certain character to a city – a USP The star-shaped hotel has five legs, each with 80 rooms inside, but instead of building five legs, we build six. One of these legs will stay in a harbour in India. In five or seven years time, when the hotel needs refurbishing, you bring the sixth leg to the hotel and connect it, sending the others one by one to be renovated. The hotel doesn’t need to shut down, and the work can be carried out where it’s easy and cost-eBective to get the materials and labour to do it.
What other projects are you working on?
We’re working in the Middle East, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman, exploring the potential of ecotourism. We’re looking at building satellite resorts for land-sited hotels, that float out at sea where there are coral reefs or mangroves. Floating resorts don’t leave any scars on the environment – they’re scarless developments, which can even have a positive eBect on the environment. For example, we work with marine engineers and environmentalists to help build floating structures that aKract underwater life. In places like Dubai, it’s so hot that it’s very
diLcult to create the right environment for fish and marine life, but the shade of these floating islands can provide a starting point for new marine ecosystems. We’re also working with master developer Dutch Docklands and the Maldivean government on the ongoing Five Lagoons Ocean Flower resort and residences. Finally, we’re looking at developing cities that face troubles with the environment, density and infrastructure – and seeing how water can be part of that solution.
What are the challenges?
Progress on Norway’s Krystall Hotel is slow because of laws that prevent building on the shoreline. Regulations and laws can be a hurdle, and may need to be changed to adapt to floating architecture. But, we are slowly moving to a marketplace where these floating developments are accepted. There’s a bright future for this technology.
Slum Schools
Waterstudio has been pioneering the concept of floating facilities that can be moored at waterside slum communities anywhere in the world. City Apps are floating developments based on a standard sea-freight container. City Apps can be established in water where there is scarcity of space and can be used to upgrade sanitation, housing and communication installations. The first City App, a floating school, is being built for a slum in Dhaka. “One billion people live in slums worldwide and half of them are close to the water. We can use City Apps to instantly improve the quality of life there,” says Olthuis. Because governments see these as temporary solutions, it’s much easier to get permission to do this than to build a facility on land.
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