waterstudio Archives - Page 19 of 79

These Houses Have the Ultimate Water View

By Sam Lubell
The New York Times
May.24.2018
Photo credit: Credit Miquel Gonzalez

Floating villas in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, south of Rotterdam. Designed by Waterstudio.NL, the villas use heat exchange power and have extra-large foundations to create terraces and other outdoor spaces.

Few places in the world are as married to the water as Venice. Not only has the Floating City replaced streets with canals and land with islands, but its buildings also sit on wooden piles, driven into the ground deep below the water. Like much of the sea-hugging world, the city is also facing an existential threat as the waters rise and its ground sinks.

The city’s art and architecture Biennales (the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale starts on Saturday and runs through Nov. 11) have long reflected this simultaneously magical and dire condition, with exhibit after exhibit addressing sustainable architecture, climate change and rising seas.

Many have even drifted along Venice’s canals themselves, including Mike Bouchet’s (doomed) floating house; Croatia’s floating pavilion; Kunle Adeyemi’s floating school; Joana Vasconcelos’ floating artwork, Trafaria Praia; and Aldo Rossi’s floating Theater of the World.

As is so often the case, life is imitating art, and floating architecture is emerging as one of the built world’s most promising markets — for many of the reasons pinpointed at the Biennale.

“We see architects as spanning between infrastructural ideas and society,” said Yvonne Farrell, one of the Biennale’s directors, who posits that if architects can take a leading role on vital environmental issues through emerging technologies like floating buildings, then they can also help re-establish their primacy in the construction process.

“You cannot not deal with environmental issues if you’re an architect these days. It has to be an essential part of your value system,” added Shelley McNamara, who is also one of the directors. “We’re all connected. We have to find solutions where art and culture and industry can all find a way to survive.”

Architects, boat builders, developers and city planners worldwide are seizing on the opportunity as cities run out of space to build, tides continue to rise and demand for efficient construction spikes. They’re creating inventive designer homes and floating resorts, and even floating cities that can be prefabricated off site and simply floated into place.

“For many, floating is something new and adventurous,” said Max Funk, co-editor of “Rock the Boat: Boats, Cabins and Homes on the Water” (Gestalten, 2017). The book reveals an explosion of creativity in buoyant architecture, including an egg-shaped floating cabin in England, floating spas (with working saunas) in Finland and the United States, and floating geodesic domes in Slovenia.

“Having a floating home used to be something only for vacationers or the uber-wealthy,” Mr. Funk said. “Now more people are realizing they can do it. And with downsizing becoming a trend, it goes along with the idea that quality of life is more important than size.”

Claudius Schulze, whose floating art studio graces the cover of “Rock the Boat,” built his 32-foot-by-16-foot timber-sided box, coated in fiberglass resin, for about 20,000 euros (about $24,000) with the help of friends, including a structural engineer. It has state-of-the-art amenities like Wi-Fi, onboard water filtration and solar power. It has its own motor (technically making it a houseboat), and Mr. Schulze has used it in, and en route to, Amsterdam, Paris and Hamburg, Germany, mooring it in each location for about €200 a month.

“It really is the perfect studio space,” he said. “It has all the inspiration and little of the distraction.”

On Seattle’s Lake Union — which has hosted floating homes since the 1920s and now has more than 500 of them — William Donnelly has lived in a multilevel floating home designed by Vandeventer & Carlander architects for more than seven years.

“I enjoy smelling the water, hearing the water,” he said. “I love the idea that my home isn’t fixed to the land. It’s freeing.” It’s not all perfect — the lake is popular, and sometimes his tightly surrounded home feels like a fishbowl — but he said that he would never live on land again.

Thanks to such situations, and to the rise in the price of waterfront property, the market for floating architecture is growing in North America, said Allison Bethell, a real estate investor analyst at FitSmallBusiness.com. Newer homes and their slips are not cheap, but since the market is young and houses are limited in size, they are rarely as expensive as prime waterfront real estate.

Outside of Seattle, where houseboat construction is being curtailed because of the potential impact on local salmon populations, Ms. Bethell said, the most prominent areas in North America for floating homes are the San Francisco Bay Area; Vancouver, British Columbia; Key West, Fla.; and Portland, Ore.; where the number of floating homes has doubled since 2012.

The trend is also expanding rapidly in Asia and the Middle East, but it is furthest along in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, which is mostly below sea level. Estimates report that the country now has more than 10,000 floating residents, none more densely packed than in Ijburg, a growing development of floating homes clustered off man-made islands on the eastern edge of Amsterdam.

Over 50 of these residences — featured in the 2014 U.K. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale — were designed by Marlies Rohmer Architects & Urbanists and developed by Amsterdam-based Monteflore. The simple, industrial-inspired homes, floating on concrete bases (the current norm) were fabricated in a factory and floated into place.

“Most of the world now lives in cities, and most cities are near water,” said Ton van Namen, managing director of Monteflore. He said his team was working on a floating development along the west coast of Wales, and had been approached by interested parties from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates.

Koen Olthuis, an architect from the Netherlands who founded Waterstudio.NL, one of more than a dozen European firms specializing in boutique buoyant homes, sees floating architecture as the future. He said he had built more than 150 floating residences in the last 15 years, including a group of floating villas in Dordrecht, south of Rotterdam, that use heat exchange power and have extra-large foundations to create terraces and other outdoor spaces.

Now he is increasing his repertoire as both a designer and a planning consultant for floating hotels, restaurants, stores, resorts and private islands, and even floating cities.

“Blue cities,” as he calls them, can be more flexible and eclectic, and respond faster to rapidly changing demands from society and industry.

“I’ve talked to many urban planners, and they all say the same thing — by the time a city’s plan is finished, it’s no longer in line with society.”

He has consulted with officials in Rotterdam, the Maldives, Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia, on flood-safe construction, smoother regulations for floating architecture, and how to float needed facilities, like a harbor, into place when needed. He envisions floating museums and factories shared by nearby cities.

“Once the elevator was invented, the whole recipe for a city changed,” Mr. Olthuis said. “Now a similar thing is happening on the water.”

The transformation of the typical floating building is, like most things in Dubai, going ahead full steam — thanks in large part to the Finnish company Admares, whose chief executive, Mikael Hedberg, started as a shipbuilder and now merges land and sea-based construction technologies.

Admares in 2016 completed the Burj Al Arab Terrace, a 2.3-acre island, attached to the sail-like Burj Al Arab tower, containing pools, cabanas, sun loungers, and a restaurant and bar. It was built in a factory in Rauma, Finland, floated into place in six pieces and then driven into the seabed via piles.

Besides location, what especially draws clients, Mr. Hedberg says, is the fact that since structures can be built off-site, on-site construction time is cut way down. The Burj Al Arab Terrace was set onto piles and welded together in about three months, subverting a landfill process that can take up to three years.

And unlike construction on landfill, floating buildings and islands create minimal ecological disturbance. Often floating platforms and piles, like those at the Terrace, serve as habitats and valuable cover for marine life.

The rise of floating design — and issues related to both rising tides and sinking cities — are having a clear impact on land, where designers and officials contend with water whether they like it or not. In many ways, floating buildings serve as laboratories for our new environmental reality.

Mr. Olthuis has helped create a development in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where “amphibious” homes — sitting on buoyant concrete bases and tethered to supports — can float in the event of flooding. (The Los Angeles firm Morphosis created a similar system for its modular, foam-cored Float House in flood-prone New Orleans.) He is also developing hybrid structures that can float on the water and, through a jack system, sit on land, making them even more flexible to personal and urban change.

“Land itself is no longer fixed in the way we’ve traditionally seen,” said Kristen Hall, an urban designer at Perkins & Will, which is incorporating water-reactive solutions for its new Mission Rock development at San Francisco’s Mission Bay, like pile-supported buildings, streets and sidewalks, and flexible utilities. “The question is, how much do you plan for change and roll with the change, and how much do you try to resist the change?”

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Rise of the Blue City

By Gif Im Focus

As an architect, you have designed floating structures and urban plans in relation to water. The Dutch have always fought against the water, but you are saying that we should rather live with the water. Your vision is that water will play a bigger role in the future of cities. So my first question is:

What is a city for you?
There are different ways of looking at a city. A sociologist will probably say a city is characterised by the way its citizens interact, and an ecologist would probably see the city as an environment with different habitats and species. As an architect, I see cities as a mix of three elements. Firstly, the specifics of the natural location, the DNA of the city. Secondly, the built-up environment, made up of buildings and infrastructure, i. e. the city’s hardware. And thirdly, the protocols,
which are a combination of the rules, regulations, traditions and culture of the community, which determine how the hardware in a city can be used.
All cities are not equal, and these three elements create a kind of balance or structure that determines the profile of a city. I think that the role of an architect should be to analyse city profiles, see their shortcomings and come up with new solutions of how to upgrade the performance of the city. This performance should
be measured in terms of how liveable the city is.

Can we not just grow further with the same system?
Today it is hard to imagine a city without revolutionary innovations that have become part of our normal lives, such as cars, electricity and the internet, which have all changed the profile of cities and the way we live. The introduction of electricity, mobility, lifts etc. has been a game changer, altering the functionality and liveability of cities. Steve Jobs said
in 1997: “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” I think this also applies to urban innovation. We think that the concept of a city has reached its final stage, but we are just in a process of evolution. Urbanisation and climate change are having a great effect on the available space and put pressure on the capacity of urban functions in cities. Growing urban congestion, the rising cost of city housing and maintenance are only a few indicators of the difficulties static cities face in adapting to change. What I mean is that the demands of society change so fast that it is not possible for a city to respond immediately because of the nature of its static hardware. Its response time is too long.

How should we get ready for change?
Investments for the future must be made to keep cities running smoothly, but what if you do not know what tomorrow’s needs will be? Big investments in infrastructure can be useless tomorrow as technology changes the way we live or use space and facilities. The only way to resolve this dilemma is to start building for change. Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Cities are living organisms, so they should change and create the potential to react to change. For this, they need to find space to grow, shorten response times and make rules and regulations more flexible so that new ideas can be adopted and implemented. Once an innovation has been adopted by a city and proven successful, it will eventually spread to other cities. The flexibility of its hardware and protocols will determine how long it takes for a city to adapt. The specific profile of a certain city could make implementation of new technology difficult. For example, it took Amsterdam 12 years to build one extra metro line in the mud. Compare that to building metro lines in solid ground in London, where the metro system was invented. To keep cities financially viable and maintain or improve their liveability, we should improve adaptability or start building for change, so to speak. Building for change can only work if you have a better idea of the needs of the city. The next revolution in cities will bring real-time interaction between the city and its users. This is the essence of a smart city. The smart city will change our cities from a stupid non-communicating structure to an interactive system that reacts to needs and data communicated by its inhabitants and users. A tailor-made system that will enhance efficiency and liveability. This leap in city evolution will make us look back in twenty years’ time and smile at the static, inefficient cities we used to live in.

What more can be done to keep our cities viable?
As viability depends on flexibility, and flexibility is in turn related to the availability of space, we need to look at cities through different eyes. We see built structures, but we should look at capacity and the extent to which functions are utilised. What I mean is that, if we could use buildings and functions more intensively, we would not necessarily need more buildings to respond to growing demand. There is an awful lot of dead space in the built environment of our cities. If you only look at how we use our homes. Many people have a spare room, kitchens are used for maybe 5 % of the day, bedrooms for 30 % and bathrooms for 10 %. Cars are used for 2 – 5 % of their lifespan and occupy parking spots for the other 95 %. Roads and power systems are designed to meet peak demand. We should use space more efficiently instead of having many functions that are only used for a small proportion of their capacity. The same applies to utilities, which produce more than we actually need for most of the time. To achieve this, we need to change the way we use these functions. By sharing space, making space more dynamic and using temporary spaces and functions, we could reduce the need for additional buildings. Instead of building more structures and raise density, I think we need to raise the efficiency of density.

Who will take the initiative in changing cities and raising the efficiency of density?
Upgrades of a city system will be initiated by existing players who control and provide services in a city. Revolutions and leaps mostly come the private sector. A new invention
can change the game and companies will build new business models around this. Examples we see everywhere include companies such as Uber and Airbnb, which have shaken up the existing static system of taxis and hotels, and both have already had an effect on the efficiency of density. There are more beds and cars available without building more hotels or cars. For the smart city revolution, we have to closely follow tech companies such as IBM, Samsung, Microsoft, Panasonic, Erikson and Google, all of which are looking for testbeds of smart technologies in existing cities.

So, what new leaps can we expect?
Almost all major cities have water in some shape or form. This water has not yet been “optimised” for adaptable city development. This is not because of lack of technology, but because it is held back by protocol restrictions. Every innovation starts with a small experiment before it is implemented on a larger scale. I think that water is the secret ingredient of a next leap in the evolution of cities. You can see small initiatives in cities like Amsterdam, Miami, Dubai, where water – or what we call blue space – is used for floating housing, restaurants, resorts and offices. These initial concepts show a glimpse of how blue space could be used. Once we can break through the regulatory obstacles, we can unlock new territory, improve efficiency and create new flexible developments. With the use of blue space, the tools available to architects to adapt cities will change. Functions can easily be added or relocated, whenever necessary, within a very short response time. No city profile is perfect, and every change in demand necessitates constant adjustments to the built environment and its protocols. The city can be tuned if a certain number of functionalities are flexible in terms of location, quantity and cost. A blue city can be tuned to become
high-performing and efficient at any time. We believe that water will be the secret ingredient in meeting the challenge of balancing constantly changing needs with the static capacity of city functions. Blue cities will be less constricted by the lifespans of urban components.

What will be the effect of more development space being available on water?
Today we see that prices of real estate in Amsterdam are booming and the affordability of housing is going down. This will eventually determine who can still afford to live in the city centre. Any initiative to turn this negative trend around would be welcomed by politicians, who want to make housing more affordable. Space owned by the municipality can deliver new revenues for the community. A blue profile can loosen the grip developers have on land prices. For cities, the new credo will be “the wetter the better”. The unique opportunities and facilities, such as flexibility, space and safety, that water can add to the urban landscape will turn blue space into the new gold. Based on this assumption, we can determine which cities hold large bodies of water near the centre and predict their willingness and ability to adapt their protocols (rules and regulations) in order to make floating
developments possible and thus create opportunities for these cities to improve their performance. I think we may soon see the first signs of the rise of the blue city.

What kinds of new concepts will a blue city have in store for us in the future?
The evolution of new blue city models, in which cities take advantage of water to upgrade, will happen in small steps. With water as an additional tool in urban planning, the rules of the game will change. Projects will not necessarily remain static, as some of the products can be placed on water. They can then be relocated and reused in other locations. Functions are no longer limited to the functional lifespan of a particular place in town, but will be determined by their technical lifespan, located on water inside or outside the city. For example, a floating school or floating sports facilities can move with the neighbourhood’s needs for those functions. Buildings will interact better with the climate of a city. It is strange that many architects still build houses that are the same for severe winter conditions and for hot summers. I think we will have seasonal houses and neighbourhoods in the future, which will change their configuration and identity along with the changing seasons. Another new concept is “meantime” cities where neighbourhoods or functions can be placed in a location. They then have to make space for new uses when their economic value no longer matches the needs of the location. This means you will be able to make space for new developments in the centre of the city without having to demolish buildings that are still functional. You just replace, re-use and re-organise to suit your needs. A common feature will be city apps – small temporary floating functions that can meet a specific need or solve a specific problem in a location: temporary parking places, floating sports facilities for a big event or temporary floating affordable housing for students. As green space is under pressure in expanding cities, we will see green spaces appear in blue cities. Floating habitats, floating forests, floating parks can all have a positive effect on the environment of a city. There will also be greater interaction between cities. The rise of the blue city is not only about changing the type of hardware the city deploys but also about greater efficiency of two or more cities working together. The next step towards greater flexibility is the cooperation between cities that share protocols (rules and regulations) and mobile assets. It will be possible to build a floating museum and share it between cities. You will no longer have to go to a specific city to see a museum, but the museum will come to you. The sharing industry transcends products and services and enters the world of urban components. Blue city profiles will allow for joint ownership and an economy in which major city functions, facilities and components can be shared. Just a few decades ago, you would have been born in a specific city and worked, lived and died there. Today the young generation of millennials can choose the city that provides them with the best opportunities. As cities will be judged and compared on the basis of liveability, competition between them will increase. Cities need to upgrade their performance and branding in order to attract the best inhabitants. We could even see battles between cities in their attempts to lure potential millennials. Adaptable cities that take advantage of water will not only survive but also thrive!

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Der Meeresspiegel steigt – na und?

By Roswitha Loibl
Im Manager
May.08.2018

Auf dem Wasser ist viel Platz, viel mehr als auf dem Land. Warum also nicht dort Häuser bauen, Parks, ganze Wohnviertel oder auch ein Fußballstadion? Die Projekte werden immer zahlreicher.

Die Russen haben kürzlich ein schwimmendes Atomkraftwerk auf die Reise nach Murmansk geschickt, die Chinesen arbeiten ebenfalls an solchen entwurzelten Großbauten. Da nehmen sich die Projekte, die bisher auf schwankenden Bauplätzen realisiert wurden, ziemlich zwergenhaft aus. Ihre Breitenwirkung ist dennoch größer.

Architekturbüros vor allem aus den Niederlanden haben sich darauf spezialisiert. Sie lösen nicht nur die Flächenprobleme, sondern zudem kann ihnen ein steigender Meeresspiegel nichts anhaben. Pfahlbauten über den Fluten sind, historisch und geografisch gesehen, kein neues Phänomen. Wer einmal im vietnamesischen Mekong-Delta unterwegs war, hat viele davon gesehen. Aber die heutige Wasser-Architektur bietet neue Ideen und mehr Luxus.

Etliche dieser Häuser existieren bereits. Im Amsterdamer Stadtviertel Ijburg gibt es eine ganze Siedlung mit 165 Wohnhäusern, deren Basis jeweils eine schwimmende Betonwanne bildet. Sie sind so an Stahlpfosten befestigt, dass sie mit dem Wasserpegel nach oben und unten gleiten können. 36 davon wurden vom Architekturbüro Waterstudio und seinem Chef Koen Olthuis erdacht, der sich auf Wasserbauten spezialisiert hat. Billig sind Bauplätze auf dem Wasser nicht. In den Niederlanden kann eine „Parzelle“ rund 200.000 Euro kosten – und der Preis für das Haus kommt noch obendrauf.

Auch auf den Malediven, im Libanon oder den Arabischen Emiraten lassen Architekten ihre Objekte künftig treiben. Bei diesen luxuriösen Konstruktionen kommt – anders als bei den schwimmenden Ferienhäusern, die beispielsweise an der Ostsee angeboten werden – kein Gedanke an ein Hausboot auf.

Mobiles Olympiastadion geht auf Reisen
Koen Olthuis geht aber noch weiter. Für einen Yachthafen im Hudson River (New York) hat sein Büro einen Mole ersonnen, die Energie erzeugt: Sie ruht auf drehbaren Säulen, die als Turbinen funktionieren und durch die Bewegung des Wassers Strom produzieren. In den Arabischen Emiraten könnten eines Tages kleine Inseln mit Solarmodulen ins Meer gesetzt werden, die durch das 27 Grad warme Wasser genau die richtige Umgebungstemperatur vorfinden. An Land würde es ihnen zu heiß.

Nicht nur Platz sparen, sondern auch Ressourcen schonen – dafür gibt es ebenfalls Ideen. Zum Beispiel ein schwimmendes Sportstadion, das sich für olympische Spiele anbietet. Es könnte für die Dauer des Wettbewerbs geleast werden und danach weiterschwimmen zu einem anderen Ort in der Welt. Nach demselben Prinzip funktioniert ein Projekt, das für Dubai entworfen wurde, sich aber auch für Katar eignen würde: Bei der Fußball-WM 2022 könnten die Gäste nicht in neu gebauten Hotels, sondern auf Kreuzfahrtschiffen nächtigen. Das Problem ist allerdings, dass der existierende Hafen nicht genug Liegeplätze bietet. Also könnte das schwimmende Terminal, das Waterstudio entworfen hat, eine Lösung bieten.

Schwimmende Insel muss liegen bleiben
Die größten Schwierigkeiten der schwimmenden Bauten sind nicht technischer Natur. Wie Architekt Koen Olthuis bei der Jubiläumsveranstaltung der Gesellschaft für immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung (Gif) Ende April sagte, lassen sich Versicherungs- und rechtliche Fragen viel schwerer lösen – angefangen mit der Frage, ob sie „Immobilien“ sind. Er erzählte von einem europäischen Aussteiger, der sich in Mexiko eine schwimmende Insel baute, die auf Säcken voll leerer Plastikflaschen ruht. Nach einigen Jahren hatte sich darauf eine üppige Vegetation entwickelt. Der Europäer wollte nun seinen Wohnort wechseln und die Insel per Boot in ein anderes Land schleppen. Das untersagten die Mexikaner ihm mit der Begründung, die Insel sei mittlerweile mexikanisches Staatsgebiet geworden.

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These floating buildings are made from thousands of plastic bottles that can withstand flooding

By Lenna Garfield
Business Insider
April.20.2018
Photo Credits:Waterstudio

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to flooding, storms, and impact from sea level rise.

In 2016, Bangladesh experienced four cyclones – a record number in the country’s recent history. And by 2050, sea level rise could inundate 17% of its land and displace up to 18 million people in Bangladesh, according to Atiq Rahman, the nation’s leading climate scientist.

Extreme weather events already flood many homes, schools, and commercial buildings every year.

An Amsterdam-based architecture firm called Waterstudio has come up with one possible solution: floating structures that can withstand storms.

Waterstudio will deliver five of these structures, called City Apps, in Dhaka, Bangladesh in late November.

Check out the project below.

Waterstudio will soon premiere five City Apps in Korail, a low-income community in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They are portable and can move to different neighborhoods.

Foto: A City App classroom in Amsterdam, Netherlands. source Waterstudio

City Apps can be customized for several types of uses, including classrooms, water filtration systems, medical clinics, or homes.

During the day, one structure will be a classroom featuring 20 tablet workstations and two teaching screens. In the evening, it will be used as an internet cafe.

Foto: A City App classroom in Amsterdam, Netherlands. source Waterstudio

The other four units will consist of a community kitchen, a facility with a public restroom and shower, and another with a back-up generator for electricity. The units are powered by solar panels located on the roofs.

Foto: A City App classroom in Amsterdam, Netherlands. source Waterstudio

The units will be buoyed to the sea floor, and move up and down as water levels rise, helping them withstand storms. They’re designed to be air-tight to reduce the risk of flooding.

Foto: source Waterstudio

The City Apps, which cost $53,000, were built in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Waterstduio CEO Koen Olthius told Business Insider.

Foto: source Waterstudio

Each foundation is made of wooden pallets, wire, and thousands of recycled plastic bottles, which allow the structures to float.

Foto: source Waterstudio

Founded in 2003, Waterstudio is known for its floating structures. It has constructed more than 200 buildings on water around the world, including these floating villas for a neighborhood called IJburg in Amsterdam, Netherlands:

Foto: source Waterstudio

Olthius hopes the City App project will provide valuable resources to neighborhoods in developing nations, especially ones threatened by climate change.

Foto: source Waterstudio

Waterstudio is working with local developers on the project in case they want to build more units.

“Some people live very close to the water — in vulnerable locations,” he said. “They can use these structures to improve their neighborhoods.”

Foto: source Waterstudio

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Dubai is getting these stunning $23 million floating villas that can withstand flooding

By Leanna Garfield
Business Insider
April.20.2018
Photo Credits: Waterstudio

Like a number of coastal areas around the world, the United Arab Emirates is becoming increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise.

According to a 2017 study from the Emirates Wildlife Society and World Wildlife Fund, researchers expect ocean levels to rise around three feet by 2100. If that happens, water would inundate about 8.1% of the Emirate of Ajman, 1.2% of the Emirate of Sharjah, and 5.9% of the Emirate of Umm Al-Quwain. Many UAE residents live in these coastal areas.

A new type of floating home could withstand future rising sea levels. Waterstudio, a Dutch architecture firm that exclusively designs floating structures, is creating 33 private villas on artificial islands off the coast of Dubai. Developer Dutch Docklands will build the first one this month.

The buoyed islands will bob up and down with water levels so they won’t flood, Waterstudio founder Koen Olthuis told Business Insider.

Take a look at the project below.

This year, Dubai is getting its first of 33 floating villas by Waterstudio, which collaborated with French oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau.

There’s no set timeline on when the entire neighborhood, dubbed Amillarah, will be complete.

Foto: source Waterstudio

The islands will also include outdoor patios with trees and a pool.

Foto: source Waterstudio

The homes will not exactly be affordable. Each island will cost between $23 million and $27.5 million.

Foto: source Waterstudio

They went on sale in 2015.

The islands will range in size from 150,000 to 450,000 square feet.

Foto: source Waterstudio

The only way to reach them will be by boat or seaplane. If water levels rise, so will the homes.

Foto: source Waterstudio

The floating, concrete base of the islands are designed to last for 100 years, according to Olthuis.

Foto: source Waterstudio

Waterstudio has exclusively built floating structures for over a decade. In 2008, the team completed this floating neighborhood in Amsterdam.

Foto: source Waterstudio

Waterstudio’s latest luxury villas are part of an even more ambitious project that began in 2003 called “The World,” a 24-square-mile archipelago of over 300 artificial islands. Dubai-based developer wants to start building homes and hotels on them by 2020.

Foto: These islands won’t be around much longer. source Wikimedia Commons

Prior to 2009, “The World” had already racked up $25 billion debt. The financial challenges have only gotten more difficult.

The Amillarah villas could revive the fantastical project. “We will see more floating neighborhoods in the next five to 10 years,” Olthuis said. “Cities will start to see the water as an asset.”

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How floating architecture could help save cities from rising seas

By Kate Baggaley
NBC
Apr.09.2018

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.”

NEW KIND OF FLOOD READINESS

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.

FLOATING HOMES

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.

SPREADING OUT

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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Our buildings can’t withstand extreme weather — these new structures could save lives

Business Insider
By Leanna Garfield
2018.Apr.11

In the span of four weeks during August and September, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria brought extreme rainfall and 100-mph winds to the US and the Caribbean, destroying thousands of houses and businesses in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.

It’s unclear whether climate change caused these storms, but atmospheric scientists say a warmer planet likely made them more aggressive.

Across the globe, architects and developers are planning for a future when storms and other climate-related disasters become more common. Many are thinking about climate resilience — the idea that buildings should be designed to endure the impact of sea-level rise, increasing temperatures, and climate disasters.

Building designers no longer see climate change as a far-off prospect. To cope with rising waters and powerful storms, some are designing buildings to withstand them.

Following are some of the building designs of the future.

Instead of fighting against flooding and storm surges, some architects believe that cities should live in harmony with water. In other words, we should build more structures on water, rather than land.

Proponents of floating architecture say that sea-level rise is a reality that cities should accept and prepare for. The Netherlands has more than half its landmass below sea level.

“We can expect more flooding in the future,” Waterstudio CEO Koen Olthuis said.

“It’s not about technology — it’s about rethinking cities. We should start building for change. Most cities, like Miami, Tokyo, and New York City, see water as a threat. We see it as an asset.”

A decade ago, Waterstudio began designing floating houses that have the same look and feel as traditional houses.

In 2011, Marlies Rohmer Architecture constructed a floating neighborhood in Amsterdam with 75 houses that bob with water levels. Other architects have recently devised floating greenhouses, movie theaters, and schools.

Founded in 2003, the Netherlands-based firm Waterstudio has designed and constructed more than 200 floating buildings.

Some, like the one pictured, are amphibious. They are located right on the coast, sometimes on dry land, sometimes on water.

Amphibious houses, which can elevate as high as four feet when water flows underneath, have a foam base that’s wrapped in a layer of concrete and connected to steel cables secured to the ground.

Other Waterstudio buildings are designed to be completely on the water.

Their concrete foundations are buoyed to cables that attach to the ocean floor. Most can withstand Category 4-force winds. If water levels rise, so do the houses, similar to boats. Waterstudio’s philosophy is that instead of fighting the water, cities should just let it pass. “A ‘blue city’ takes advantage of the water. Building on the water is safe from floods, and it’s flexible. You can move structures in different configurations and from city to city,” said Koen Olthuis, Waterstudio’s CEO.

The largest challenge for the company has been persuading cities to advocate for amendments to building codes so that the company’s houses are recognized as normal houses instead of houseboats.

In December, the company debuted floating micro-units made from shipping containers, which serve as classrooms, health clinics, and sanitary facilities in Bangladesh.

Waterstudio recently completed a small floating neighborhood of five houses in the Netherlands. Olthuis anticipates building a floating neighborhood with 10,000 houses within the next five years.

The team is also working on a floating villa and a floating hotel in Dubai, and a floating wildlife habitat tower in Dianchi Lake, near Kunming, China, all set to be completed in 2018.

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Come as you are

By Müller Möbel

Space is becoming increasingly scarce in our densely built-up cities. Urban living therefore requires new architectural concepts as well as modularly designed furniture that saves space and flexibly meets the most diverse requirements.

Some people consider furniture purely as a commodity: a table is therefore a table, a chair is a chair and a cupboard is simply a cupboard. We think it can be a bit more. That‘s why we also see furniture as a problem solver. And as a source of ideas that suggest, for example, how to live happily in confined spaces. Almost legendary is our stacking bed by Rolf Heide, which can be stacked on top of each other in a simple and space-saving way and can be used as an extra guest bed if required. The modern classic made of laminated wood embodies our understanding of design in a special way: timeless, minimalist design, puristic materials and intelligent functionality that creates new perspectives for a wide range of situations in an uncomplicated manner. The same idea is also followed by the Konnex shelf system, designed by Florian Gross and awarded by the German Design Council, which can be constantly redesigned and organized with its innovative plug-in principle. Different numbers of individual boxes can be modularly added to an individual storage space. As a flexible solution for people who are mobile and always feel like change.

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Water World

By Christopher de Wolf
Clad Magazine
2018 issue 1
Photo Credits Waterstudio

When the Arctic Bath opens on the Lule River in Sweden next year, it will off er six cabins, a sauna, spa and restaurant, all of it surrounding an open-air cold bath. The structure will be surrounded by piled logs, a visually spectacular touch envisioned by architects Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi. But what really sets this Nordic spa resort apart from others is the location: not just next to the river, but directly on top of it. In the summer, the spa will float on the river’s surface; in the winter, it will be frozen in place. Floating structures have been around for a long time. People have been living on houseboats for centuries in cities like Amsterdam, while in Hong Kong, thousands of people lived in massive floating villages as recently as the 1970s. Even today, the flying eaves and sultry neon of that city’s Jumbo Floating Restaurant evoke a particular kind of romance. Water has always promised a sort of freedom, too. A libertarian organisation called the Seasteading Institute is currently working on plans for autonomous fl oating cities that would roam international waters, allowing them to experiment with new forms of governance. In a world beset by rising sea levels, where technology and human behaviour seems to be changing faster than ever, a growing number of architects believe fl oating architecture could change the way we live.

THE FUTURE FOR CITIES?
“I think floating architecture is coming to a point where it’s an essential element to develop cities,” says architect Koen Olthuis, the founder of Dutch architecture practice Waterstudio. Since 2003, Olthuis has worked on floating houses, schools, resorts, swimming pools and other projects, all of them enabled by a proprietary fl oating base technology. Waterstudio recently doubled in size to 30 architects aft er it merged with British ‘aquatecture’ firm Baca Architects. Olthuis says cities can become more adaptable by embracing their waterways. “Imagine you’re doing the Olympics in Miami,” he says. “It costs you a lot of time and money, you’re building stadiums for all these European sports, but aft er the Olympics they aren’t being used anymore. There’s no soccer in Miami. So instead you could built floating stadiums, fl oating hotels and just lease them. You could have cultural events and museums that go from city to city. It’s a new way of thinking.” For the past few years, Olthuis has been working with the government of the Maldives to design these kinds of fl exible floating facilities. Think of them as modular city components that can be shuffled around according to need. The Maldives is a collection of Indian Ocean islands that are slowly being reclaimed by the sea. In the past, its officials have speculated that climate change may require the entire country to be relocated elsewhere, but Olthuis espouses a philosophy of living with water rather than trying to fight against it.

Some of his other projects include floating schools for low-income neighbourhoods in Dhaka, the flood-prone Bangladeshi capital. But in that case, as in many others, Olthuis has run up against restrictive building codes and regulations. “We’ve built six of these fl oating schools, but they’re still here in the harbour waiting to be taken to Dhaka because we can’t get the local authority to give a permit,” he says. “Our whole system is based on cities built from static elements.” So for now, floating architecture is still in the vanguard. But there are a growing number of examples around the world. Last year in Switzerland, British architect Tom Emerson designed the floating Pavilion of Reflections for the Manifesta 11 biennale, the roving European exhibition of contemporary art. The latticed wood structure served as the biennale’s focal point, with an outdoor cinema and event space with steps leading down to a public swimming pool. Bristol’s Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Arts commissioned Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves and German designer Gitt a Gschwendtner to create a floating garden made from the ballast of historic ships, which can still be found in the city’s harbour. “The fact you’re literally disconnected from
land has an impact on your perceptions and perspective,” says Dutch architect Sikko Valk. “The moment your feet leave shore, you’re crossing a bridge over water, and there your break from the everyday routine begins. It’s quite symbolic.” Together with art director Remko Verhaagen, Valk designed the Good Hotel, which began life as a pop up social enterprise project on the waters of Amsterdam (it employs and trains long term unemployed locals). It is now floating at the Royal Victoria Dock in London. This wasn’t a new build – the hotel was originally a floating jail. “Given its original safeguarding purpose, in many ways this structure is built more robustly than most land-based buildings,” says Valk. The rooms are fairly small, because most of the internal walls are load-bearing, so the design team focused on making them inviting, with “warm and tactile” materials like rough carpets and wood panelling, says Valk. In the lobby and lounge areas, the designers were able to remove some walls in order to create large, open spaces. The eff ect is a long way from the traditional cloistered environment of a boat. “Where the corridors and rooms are cosy, we created the main public area to be open with sections that can be fl exibly set up,” says Verhaagen. After a year in Amsterdam, Good Hotel was hoisted onto a barge and ferried across the English Channel to London. It was a journey that took
quite a bit of preparation — the hotel weighs eight million kilograms — but it’s an example of the inherent mobility of floating structures.

That’s one of the main concepts behind wa_sauna, which plies the many waterways of Seattle. Launched by goCstudio in 2016, the minimalist plywood sauna sits on a 23-square-metre platform fitted with an electric trolling motor. “We licensed [it] as a registered vessel – this was one way we were able to have the structure on the water for use at any time without traditional permits,” says designer Aimee O’Carroll. “It seemed like a great fi t for Seatt le, a city which is surrounded by water and has a history of Scandinavian culture,” she says. Rather than find a client, the designers launched a crowdfunded campaign, and they now use the sauna for events. “It’s a respite in the middle of the water while remaining in the heart of the city,” says O’Carroll. “The lakes here remain usable throughout the year and provide the perfect cold plunge. Since it’s a self propelled vessel, the waterways which surround the city gave us a unique relationship to the urban environment.”

A CONNECTION TO THE WATER
Water defines many of the world’s major cities – Hong Kong would never have been colonised if not for its harbour, London thrived because of the River Thames and the aquatic ingenuity of Venice once sustained a vast trading network. And yet the average citizen of these cities remains disconnected from their waterways. Like the wa_ sauna, a number of floating projects are designed to take advantage of this underutilised resource. In Florida, a new project by architect and engineer Carlo Ratti aims to create a partially submerged floating plaza along the redeveloped waterfront of West Palm Beach. “Our idea is to
off er views that extend over the waterline,” says Ratti, who is the founding partner of design firmCRA and the director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. He plans to achieve that by creating a plazza based on the double hull of a submarine. A system of water pumps will fill and empty an air-water chamber located below the surface of the water, which allows the platform to move up and down. “Sensors detect variations in height, so that the system responds accordingly. As a result, the platform hovers at the surface of the water – creating space by subtraction and presenting different view perspectives over the waterline.” This isn’t the first time Ratt has incorporated water into one of his projects. His design for the Digital Water Pavilion for the 2008 Zaragoza World Expo in Spain used digitally-controlled water walls to define the space. “I think that one of the most interesting aspects is to imagine a ‘fluid’ architecture that adapts to human need, rather than the other way around – a living, tailored space that is moulded to its inhabitants’
needs, characters, and desires,” he says. “Water is a reconfigurable material.” It’s not only configurable for human life. In the years since he opened Waterstudio, Koen Olthuis has come to realise that floating architecture can be a boon to marine life. “We analyse locations so we know what we can and can’t built there,” he says. One of his projects is called Blue Habitat “Those are fantastic artificial coral reefs which we can just connect underneath our structures. Then you are sitting inside your house and you can monitor it and change it.” There is still a curious reticence when it comes to floating architecture. “Even in Holland, where we live mostly under sea level, and water is all around us, large floating structures are still not really common,” says Sikko Valk. “It is in a way quite unexplored territory.”
Koen Olthuis expects that to change in the future. He has already sensed a shift in the priorities of the architects who come to work for him. “The architects that come to our offices are not like architects 15 years ago, who wanted to build extreme iconic architecture. They are architects who want to make a change,” he says.

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Breaking the waves, ancient Greek-style

By Neos Kosmos
March.16.2018
photo Credits Waterstudio

Dutch-designed floating breakwater which doubles as an energy generator is modeled after the Parthenon

The Parthenon Seawall is a new suggestion for a floating breakwater which would protect harbours and coastlines from tidal force, turning it into electrical power.

In ancient Greek mythology, Olympian god Poseidon used his trident to master the sea; thousands of years later, the need to master the sea remains as pressing as ever and it is of little wonder that those facing the task looked to ancient Greece for inspiration. This is true of the innovative Netherlands-based architecture firm ‘Waterstudio’ led by Architect Koen Olthius and specialising in floating urban structures. The studio’s mission statement is “developing solutions to the problems posed by urbanization and climate change” and its latest creation, the Parthenon Seawall, is a floating breakwater that doubles as an energy generator, promises to do exactly that.

Waterstudio used New Yorks Hudson River to illustrate the Parthenon Seawall’s function.

As its name suggests, the Parthenon Seawall was designed to resemble the iconic temple of Athena, but despite its ancient esthetics, the structure’s columns have more to do with functionality and addressing specific needs in a modern-day urban setting. While normally breakwater structures are designed to disrupt waterflow and reduce the impact of waves, tides and currents, protecting coastlines, harbors and riverbeds from potential damage, the Parthenon Seawall goes a step – or more – further than just fighting the force of water – it lives with it and turns it into electrical power. The floating breakwater stems the crash of water pushing into a harbor, while at the same time harvesting the tremendous energy a wall of water like that can generate.

The Parthenon Seawall employs the “stacked pyramid” structure – the columns are comprised of cylinders that rotate – both clockwise and counter clockwise – at low speed, moving by the flow of water. The upper concrete platform is where the energy is stored, but Waterstudio designers suggest it can also be used as a riverfront, creating a space for greenery and recreation. Poseidon would be proud.

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