BIG Unveils Designs For World's First Floating City in Busan
With winter gardens, restaurants, and homes for 12,000 residents.
After getting a green light from UN-Habitat and the Metropolitan City of Busan last December, OCEANIX, Bjarke Ingels Group‘s group ambitious floating city project off the coast of Busan, South Korea is now officially underway.
Designed in collaboration with Samsung-owned architecture firm SAMOO and UN-Habitat, OCEANIX seeks to mediate the environmental impact of rapid population growth around coastal cities which are in danger of becoming partially submerged within the next decade due to rising sea levels.
“Sustainable floating cities are a part of the arsenal of climate adaptation strategies available to us. Instead of fighting with water, let us learn to live in harmony with it,” UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif said in a statement. “We look forward to developing climate adaptation and nature-based solutions through the floating city concept, and Busan is the ideal choice to deploy the prototype.”
The city consists of floating modular platforms housing living spaces, research facilities, and community centers, all of which are connected via a network of bridges. While the initial proposal consists of an area of 15.5 acres that will accommodate around 12,000 people, the city is designed to easily expand and could theoretically house as many as 100,000 residents.
Safety and sustainability were two primary focuses of the project, and the floating architecture is designed to withstand all types of natural disasters including Category 5 hurricanes while able to produce its own energy, food, and freshwater.
More information can be found in our previous post and on the BIG website.
Elsewhere in design, Hender Scheme launches “re_creation” furniture pop-up.
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