Company has BIG Ideas for Floating, Underwater City

The architecture for buildings has reached new heights by incorporating new technological elements that are both aesthetic yet bizarre. The Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG), who has already designed floating architecture, is planning on expanding their design plans. BIG has teamed up with Oceanix and MIT’s Center for Ocean Engineering and has revealed a plan for a floating city that can host up to 10,000 people, according to New Atlas.

The Oceanix City proposal is part of UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda. They were first revealed at the United Nations, which also involved the Explorers Club, a multi-disciplinary science society. Here they brought to attention their concern about rising sea levels and climate change.

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

Although there are no immediate plans of building this water city, they do know the Oceanix City would spread across 185 acres and consist of floating platforms. Each floating piece of land would be grouped into clusters of six that would constitute a 1,650 resident “village.” The six villages would surround a central harbor.

“Social, recreational, and commercial functions would be placed around the sheltered inner ring to encourage citizens to gather and move around the village. Residents can easily walk or boat through the city using electric vehicles,” according to the press release.

The village would also focus their efforts on farming below and above land with floating reefs, seaweed, oysters, mussel, and clam farming.

Credit: BIG

The buildings would not exceed seven stories to encourage a low center of gravity and mitigate the challenges associated with high winds. All of the buildings would be created from sustainable materials, such as bamboo, and have flat roofs to offer shade and a space for solar panels.

The sea is our fate – it may also be our future,” says BIG founder Bjarke Ingels, according to New Atlas. “The first sustainable and self-sustained floating community Oceanix City is designed as a human made ecosystem channeling circular flows of energy, water, food and waste. Oceanix City is a blueprint for a modular maritime metropolis anchored in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The additive architecture can grow, transform and adapt organically over time, evolving from a neighborhood of 300 residents to a city of 10,000 – with the possibility of scaling indefinitely to provide thriving nautical communities for people who care about each other and our planet.”