Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN)– The landmarks of a floating city have begun to form over the waters of the Indian Ocean, 10 minutes away by boat. only pThe capital of the Maldives, Male. This city is large enough to house 20,000 people.
Designed similarly to a brain coral, the city includes 5,000 floating units that include homes, restaurants, shops and schools, linked by canals.
The first units will be unveiled this month, with residents moving in early 2024, and the city’s construction scheduled for completion by 2027.
The city, a joint venture between real estate developer Dutch Docklands and the government of the Maldives, is a viable solution to sea level rise.
The Maldives is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
Quinn Ulthuis, founder of the architecture firm Waterstudio that designed the city, described the project as a “new hope” for more than half a million people in the Maldives, telling CNN: “It can demonstrate that there are affordable housing, large communities, and regular cities.” Safe to float on water, too.”
Floating Architecture Center
Ulthuis was born and raised in the Netherlands, where regarding a third of the land is below sea level, and has lived close to water all his life.
His family worked in shipbuilding and architecture, so it was natural for him to combine the two.
In 2003, Ulthuis founded Waterstudio, which specializes in fully above water construction.
At the time, signs of climate change were beginning to emerge, but it wasn’t considered a big enough problem to start a company dedicated to it, says Ulthuis.
The biggest problem at that time was the area, as cities were expanding, with enough land suitable for new urban development.
Over the past two decades, Waterstudio has designed more than 300 floating homes, as well as offices, schools and healthcare centers around the world.
The Netherlands has become the epicenter of this movement, with floating gardens, a floating dairy farm, and a floating office building that serves as the headquarters for the Global Center for Adaptation (GCA), an organization focused on scaling up climate solutions.
Patrick Verkoijn, CEO of GCA, sees floating architecture as a practical and economically savvy solution to rising sea levels.
Last year, floods cost the global economy more than $82 billion, according to reinsurance agency Swiss Re.
Costs are expected to rise as climate change triggers extreme weather events.
A report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) predicts that urban property worth more than $700 billion annually will be affected by coastal and river flooding, by 2030.
Floating architecture still has a long way to go, in terms of scale and affordability, according to Verkoeijn, who said, “This is the next step in this journey, namely, how do we scale, and at the same time, how can we accelerate it?”
Ordinary city..but floating
The Maldives project aims to achieve these two aspects, and build a city of 20,000 people in less than 5 years.
Waterstudio is designed to appeal to locals with its rainbow-coloured houses, spacious balconies, and waterfront views.
Residents will travel by boat, and can walk, bike, or use electric scooters or buggies on sandy streets.
Ulthuis emphasized that the potential environmental impact of the structure had been carefully assessed by local coral experts and approved by government authorities before construction began.
To support marine life, artificial coral banks made of foamed glass are attached to the city’s underside and will naturally stimulate coral growth.
The goal is for the city to be self-sufficient, with the same tasks that cities do on land.
By developing a fully functional floating city in the Maldives, Ulthuis hopes to take this type of architecture to the next level.
