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[waldron] 31/12/2024 08:21

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What are the challenges for a floating city?

By
Bouygues Construction,

13 January 2020

What if tomorrow we lived in cities that floated on the sea? It’s an idea that is gaining ground through a UN-supported initiative. But is it a maritime pipe dream?


Living on the water is the stuff of dreams. We think of those houses on stilts in the tropics, or maybe carefree holidays or even the harsh lives of traditional fishermen.

There have been numerous projects involving floating utopias: in the 1960s the Japanese Metabolist architects, led by Kenzō Tange, envisaged living in sprawling maritime cities in Tokyo Bay.

More recently, the French architect Vincent Callebaut designed a project for a mobile floating village, with overhead wind turbines to make it energy self-sufficient.

There have been numerous plans to build floating recreational cities, somewhere between a giant cruise ship and a mobile version of a luxury seaside resort.

Some Silicon Valley billionaires, tempted to live in seclusion in international waters to avoid paying taxes, even gave some thought to financing the construction of floating cities where they could set up their businesses on the high seas.

But building on water is already a reality: in the Netherlands, where houses float on fresh water, recently joined by a floating farm near Rotterdam; in Copenhagen, where student accommodation is tied up to the port; in Paris, where the Joséphine Baker pool floats on the Seine.


In Singapore, there is a real floating stage in the very centre of the city. These initiatives aim first and foremost to exploit new building potential in places where land is limited, but they can also be seen as technical experiments that help us to prepare for the consequences of climate change. Bridges, solar panels, wind turbines and runways are just some of the many infrastructures that have already seen floating versions take shape, not to mention floating port and tunnel projects. Today’s technology means that there are now no obstacles to building entire floating cities.

The designers of the Oceanix City project offer neighbourhoods for 300 inhabitants, built on floating modules that are energy self-sufficient and produce their own drinking water. Most importantly, they are designing a self-sufficient food production project, through underwater aquaponic farms, located immediately below floating platforms which support four- to seven-storey buildings. The idea is to create new neighbourhoods connected to city centres and designed to promote affordable housing in the world’s most populous coastal megacities.


More and more urban dwellers live on the coast


The UN Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, projects that city populations will continue to grow, reaching 60% of the world’s population in 2030.[1] Urban coastal zones in emerging countries are the most affected: of the 10 world cities that will pass the 10 million inhabitant mark in the coming years, 9 are coastal. This new urban population is particularly exposed to natural disasters, including flooding and periods of coastal inundation which are becoming more frequent with climate change. For example, thousands of disadvantaged people in Nigeria live in Lagos in floating shantytowns and we have all been affected recently by images of Venice beneath the waves and the floods in the south of France. But disaster can take on greater proportions. For example, Indonesia has decided to build a new dry capital while Jakarta, with its 10 million inhabitants, gradually sinks below sea level at a rate of up to 25 centimetres per year. Alongside this climate problem there is also a housing access problem. According to McKinsey, one third of the world’s population experiences problems when trying to access housing in cities, and the lack of land for building is the biggest obstacle to the development of affordable housing. Some coastal megacities have found a way around this by building higher city-centre buildings while others, such as Hong Kong, are already among the most densely populated cities in the world. Most Asian megacities are making massive investments in offshore expansion in order to create new land for building close to the centre but this brings substantial investment costs and a hefty ecological impact.



Are floating cities a future solution?

It is against this background that the entrepreneur Marc Collins Chen, CEO of Oceanix, has relaunched the idea of building floating cities, alongside the BIG agency’s Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. On 3 April, the UN in New York held a round table on floating cities, led by Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The MIT Centre for Ocean Engineering joined the table to promote the possibility of building cities on water to combat the problem of affordable housing, while protecting residents from the rise in sea level. Floating habitats are therefore no longer the dream of a few libertarian billionaires that they were a few years ago. Nowadays it is an initiative that receives political support, and a prototype is due to be trialled in the coming years.


Are there risks involved?


However, the construction of floating cities raises other issues, primarily ecological ones. There are those, for example, who point out that the construction of floating cities produces an immediate response to the problem of climate change, without however offering a long-term solution to this problem; the effects of these floating megastructures on marine ecosystems are also ignored. The construction of these marine cities also depletes natural resources, although presumably much less so than offshore expansion in Asian countries, which are very resource-intensive. Should it be seen as a new form of urban sprawl on water? From a practical point of view, the day-to-day functioning of these floating cities raises questions. How will these floating cities be connected to existing mainland cities? And how will our lifestyles adapt to living on water? A resident of Amsterdam, whose floating home rocks during windy weather, tells Le Monde, “Our lights regularly sway back and forth.[4] We have also had to counterbalance our furniture weight against that of our neighbours!” We need to transition to a way of living that is more open to the unexpected. In addition to these ecological and practical questions, there is also the social aspect: how do we build affordable housing in these floating cities?


This is a key economic challenge that the Oceanix City model hopes to address. Some of the previously envisaged floating cities were aimed at an elite who were the only ones who could afford them.



Current projects will have to avoid this pitfall, otherwise they will become floating ghettos for billionaires, thus deepening inequality in the world. Research into floating cities continues. Let us make sure that it is ecologically responsible and for the benefit of all.

[waldron] 31/12/2024 08:04

Cruise bosses predict 10,000-passenger ships and ‘floating cities’ within a decade

With around 70 new vessels planned by 2036, we asked cruise insiders to predict what holidays at sea will look like in 10 years’ time

Sara Macefield
THE TELEGRAPH

29 December 2024 1:00pm GMT

Four years ago the cruise industry was on its knees, cowering under the curse of Covid.

The pandemic wreaked such devastation some observers feared this style of holiday might sink forever. Flick the calendar forward, and cruising has become the ultimate comeback kid, blasting forth with a vengeance.

With shipyards boasting bulging order books containing around 70 new vessels that will add at least 170,000 berths to the global cruise fleet by 2036, we dusted off our crystal ball to predict the twists and turns of this burgeoning sector over the next decade.


Many cruises will never end

For those who love life at sea, why would you ever bother getting off? There seems to be no shortage of demand for ever-longer world cruises, with Royal Caribbean’s nine-month circumnavigation earlier this year turning into a TikTok sensation.

Even the troubled “perpetualR21; world voyage of Villa Vie Odyssey, which was stranded in Belfast for four months before finally departing in October for its three-and-a-half-year world cruise, had plenty of eager participants.

With talk of other similar initiatives, there’s nothing to stop travellers opting for what MSC Cruises has dubbed “radical sabbaticals” of extended breaks on grand voyages or working from ships and taking advantage of the high-speed internet that so many now possess.

Azamara Cruises’ chief executive Dondra Ritzenthaler was confident this trend would go even further.

“I think that by 2034 there will be people who sell their homes and live on cruise ships, perhaps living on one for three months and then flying to another,” she predicted. “I could see this becoming a permanent lifestyle for people.”

With Virgin Voyages having just launched the industry’s first annual cruise pass with a price tag of around £96,000 ($120,000) providing 12 months of “anytime, anywhere” sailing on its ships, this could be a trend that gathers steam.

New mega-ships will carry 10,000 passengers

Ten years ago, there were just two leviathans (by modern standards): Royal Caribbean’s pair of Oasis-class ships, each holding nearly 7,000 guests.

Now the line has six of these giants, plus the even bigger Icon of the Seas, holding up to 7,600 passengers, and there are three more on order.

Add to this another nine 5,000-plus passenger ships across the fleets of MSC Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line. Even Disney Cruise Line is getting in on the act with new ship Disney Adventure taking 6,700 Mickey Mouse fans, and then there are the likes of P&O Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), whose largest ships are approaching 5,000 capacity.

Ships this size will become increasingly commonplace as the decade rolls on, fuelled by demands for more extravagant onboard thrills from a younger cruising crowd.

According to Tony Andrews, managing director of Cruise.co.uk, the age of his company’s customers has dropped dramatically over the last five years.

“Our average passenger age has come down by 11 years to 55 since 2019,” he said. “We expect this to drop further as cruising becomes increasingly mainstream and cruise lines introduce even more innovations on their ships and itineraries that are tailored to new demographics.”

Construction-wise, there are few limits to building even larger ships, though the larger they are the more unwieldy they become.

“There are limitations due to restrictions of access at ports and the market is limited as these ships do not appeal to everyone, but we could still potentially see a 10,000-passenger ship in the next decade,” predicted Andrews.

“Beyond that, we could see floating cities holding many more people, with mini-ships taking passengers into ports or on short cruises.”

Such giants could fuel more cruises to nowhere with guests packing their days with onboard attractions of their floating resort. Alternatively, the only port stops may be the growing number of private islands and resorts that cruise companies are developing – a shrewd strategy that neatly keeps all customer spend within their control.


Cruise ports close their doors…

As the backlash against overtourism gathers pace with high-profile protests against holidaymakers and heftier visitor taxes, more cruisers could end up saying adios to Spanish hotspots like Mallorca, as well as the Greek islands of Santorini and Mykonos.




Northern Europe’s sparkling diamond Amsterdam is another hotspot set to largely disappear from cruise itineraries; further afield, local opposition to cruise ships in some Alaskan ports and Florida’s Key West could see numbers cut and visits by large ships curtailed.




Stringent environmental curbs demanding zero emission cruise ships, already due to come into force in the Norwegian fjords in 2026, could well be extended to other ecologically sensitive regions, while the increasing popularity of Antarctica – which already has some of the strictest rules on the planet – may even prompt additional controls on numbers.


Travelling from one royal kingdom to another to escape winter chills on voyages to Saudi Arabia could be on the cards as the desert nation steadily opens up to tourists.

Alternatively, dive into little-visited nations along West Africa, where Ghana, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire are rising stars.


Cool cruises will become hot

With climate change turning up the heat in the Mediterranean, so-called “coolcation221; cruising could be all the rage, with lines visiting the Med in winter, rather than summer.

Northern Europe will become an even more enticing prospect, while rising temperatures may see the North West Passage featuring on more itineraries. And, should relations with Russia thaw, the way will be open for sailings along the fabled North East Passage to the remote lands where polar bears roam along the top of Siberia and into Asia.

“The next 10 years will redefine the boundaries of cruise travel, opening doors to destinations that were once considered out of reach,” said Lee Haslett, chief commercial officer of Greek-based line Celestyal. “Our cruise programme recently extended to the Arabian Gulf and there is much more to come from this region as well as other locations that welcome cruise ships.”


Let robot waiters take your orders

As artificial intelligence tightens its grip, expect it to enhance the cruise experience – and not just behind the scenes. The smart tech revolution has already taken hold with keyless cabin entry and other twists, but a new generation of potential robot waiters are sitting in the wings, according to Edwina Lonsdale, who runs specialist agency Mundy Cruising.

“More on-board technology could be used to greatly enhance the guest experience,” she added. “As connectivity improves and AI grows, you can expect virtual butlers to assist with easy questions, or tasks such as making or amending dinner reservations, and this will free up time for staff to give more personalised service.”


The future is full of green shoots

Sustainability is shaping the cruise industry into the next decade as the global cruise fleet strives to hit net zero emissions by 2050. Expect older, traditional ships to be phased out as a new generation of more eco-friendly craft using low-emission fuels and battery power come into service.

Plugging into local power at ports around the world will become the norm rather than the exception as more destinations install the necessary technology to enable ships to do this. Fifty per cent of modern cruise ships already have such capability – a figure set to grow with each new launch.

“Over the next decade, the cruise industry will be far more environmentally focused,” said Silversea Cruises UK & Ireland managing director Peter Shanks. “More ports around the world will also demand higher standards, which will impact on the ships that can go to them, and the ships introduced today and in 10 years’ time will be of a standard that can do that.”

However, the biggest change of all may be that the cruise market finally finds its feet as a predominant holiday choice rather than a flourishing niche.

“This is already the case in the USA,” Shanks added. “In the UK, the cruise market is now 2.3 million, but in 10 years’ time, it will take a much greater share and become more of a mainstream option.”

[waldron] 31/12/2024 07:54

“Floating City is designed to support the global response to the threat of climate change,” the designers say. “Floating City is a project proposal for sustainable and resilient cities. Adaptable, and scalable. Designed to adapt to the shifting needs of several coastal cities, particularly vulnerable to sea level rise due to their low elevation, like New York, Miami, New Orleans, Jakarta, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo, the project has the potential to expand and accommodate more than 200,000 people.”

[waldron] 31/12/2024 07:51

“Floating City is designed to support the global response to the threat of climate change,” the designers say. “Floating City is a project proposal for sustainable and resilient cities. Adaptable, and scalable. Designed to adapt to the shifting needs of several coastal cities, particularly vulnerable to sea level rise due to their low elevation, like New York, Miami, New Orleans, Jakarta, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo, the project has the potential to expand and accommodate more than 200,000 people.”


DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS

Bouygues

[njbmitchell] 11/9/2002 16:17

paualismyname, well done, i was a poster b4 (now lurker) but can remember very well the day and the moment so its a fitting tribute to read the posts and reflect
rgds
neil

[paulismyname] 11/9/2002 15:54

This thread was before my time at ADVFN but i came across it by chance many moons ago, it made somber reading. The orginal is stored on my hard disk so I never loose it.

Many familer names today, then, tried to make sense of the unthinkable.

The reason why I have brought it back is that it is my own ernest belief the best way of not giving in to threats of this nature is by working normally and not allowing horror to change our way of life.

This almost unique thread demonstrates that........ordinary people coping with the unexpected, and continuing to work

[tom555] 09/9/2002 07:23

With the average house around 5.5 times average earnings (according to the 6 o'clock news and Hometrack) and the price of a decent house far higher, it basically means that unless your earning 150k+ when you graduate you've got no chance of ever living in a decent house.

Decent areas in the North are almost as expensive as in the South.

High house prices are a social disaster.

[grimbo] 08/9/2002 22:26

I agree with the theme of this thread and with the last post. It is only London and the South East (at the moment) who stand to get hit. Here in Scotland the ratio of house price to earnings ratio is only 2.6 (last time I checked). For sure there are hotspots where it is a lot more, but as the last poster indicated, its only a very limited number of people that are going to get hurt as its lack of properties thats driving prices in those areas.

[justin_thyme] 08/9/2002 22:15

Trumpet - I can't fault your logic but, outside the South East and certainly locally in the North, house prices in many areas only rose really strongly from around December last and, due to the lack of available properties, a limited number of people have been able to move home (perhaps 10%, at the most, is a reasonable figure?). So, if prices do move back by 20% or so, only a very few people will be left licking their wounds and around 90% won't have been affected at all. Also many of those that are affected wouldn't be planning to move again in the near future and by the time they are prices may well be on the move up? So, maybe the doom and gloom's a little overdone.

[trumpet] 08/9/2002 21:50

Not true,

There's plenty of evidence that relative to local incomes prices have outsripped earnings throughout whole swathes of the south and areas of the north and scotland.

Good for banks and building societies and those retiring and cashing out and leaving the country or scaling down - bad for everybody else who may need to move up the ladder or to relocate for work reasons/family.

Plenty of the bears also think that this is a particulalry stupid way of pricing the economy out of jobs by making the UK a ludicrously overpriced place to run a busines and employ staff. Heard of many companies relocating their business from Europe to here recently ?

[justin_thyme] 08/9/2002 21:13

There are certain peeps on this board who've taken a gamble on prices falling. They constantly de-ramp house prices and it can become depressing reading their posts. I don't blame tham but nearly all the negative 'cut'n pastes' they post only apply to London and the South East. Thanks, but I'll stick to my own research in my own area.

[joeycooper] 08/9/2002 19:08

Us poor old pensioners with savings in building societies to supliment the meager pension are subsidising the house price boom, whils't we get minimal interest on our lifetime savings.

[comesuntbob] 08/9/2002 19:01

Stew,

I own a car, I'd like to pay less for the next one if i could
I own property, I'd like to pay less for the next one if possible

cootuk,

I own House A which is worth 100K. I want to buy House B which costs 200k so I have to find an extra 100K. If the prices double then I have to find 200K. If the price halves then I only have to find 50k. I get to live in better a house for less.

[cootuk] 06/9/2002 21:28

Because people have to move to bigger homes when they have a family/want more room/want a better area, and the capital gain on the old house acts as a good deposit on a bigger house.

[stewjames] 06/9/2002 17:25

Because (probably) more people own houses than don't.

[comesuntbob] 06/9/2002 15:57

Why do we assume that people will suffer if the house prices drop. We won't suffer if the price of petrol, beer, food etc drops. So why flap if houses are cheaper?

[johnmfrancis] 06/9/2002 14:59

I agree it's onlt the southerners who are going to
suffer with any house price crash.

Up here in Darwen Lancashire a FTB can still get
a reasonable terraced house for less than 30k.

[pie in the sky] 06/9/2002 13:57

How anyone can say that there is going to be a crash, slowdown, drop, or even a levelling out of housing prices anywhere outside the south east is out of their minds.

Soon, most of the 'brownbelt' around London is going to be passed for planning permission. When that happens the suburbs will become cheaper and inner London will feel the knock-on.

Everywhere else in the country is starved of housing, there simply isn't enough to go around. This basic statistic of demand outweighing supply will keep the market buoyant in the rest of the country.

People can still afford mortgages in all of the major cities except London. Interest rates aren't going to rise any time soon. etc etc.

[pqpq] 22/8/2002 13:39

Pacific Media looks set for a technical bounce back to 0.45-0.60 range.
I am a holder.

[this_is_me] 22/8/2002 13:37

JJB Me bought this morning - the first thing Me bought for months.