FOCUS ON FLOATING ARCHITECTURE
Photo: Mark Seelen
BUILDING ON WATER IS, IN ITSELF, NOTHING NEW. SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL, BOATMEN AND FISHERS HAVE LIVED ON BOATS, AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, EVEN APART FROM PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE, WAYS HAVE BEEN SOUGHT TO MAKE THE WATER SURFACE NEAR ENOUGH HABITABLE. IT MAY BE DONE BY BUILDING ON PILES, ON MOUNDS AND DYKES, OR, MORE RADICALLY, BY SETTING HOUSES AFLOAT. THE FACT THAT FLOATING ARCHITECTURE HAS ATTRACTED RAPIDLY GROWING INTEREST IN RECENT YEARS IS DUE TO THE LACK OF SPACE CAUSED BY OVERPOPULATION AND, RELATED TO THIS, BY CLIMATE CHANGE.
Precisely in the areas where most people live, in lower lying areas, they are threatened by rising sea levels. At the same time, rivers need more space to cope with the periodically abundant rainfall, in places where houses and sometimes entire urban districts are already built. The coincidence of these developments raises a complex problem: while more and more land is needed due to population growth, increasing areas must tackle flood drainage, or at times of drought must collect and store water in reservoirs. This puts even more pressure on the use of land than it already was, on land high enough to be safe from flooding or waterlogging. So it makes sense to explore how the water surface could be used for building. There is plenty of room there, and of course it helps that floating buildings can simply move with the rise and fall of the water.
It goes without saying that innovations in floating architecture take place mainly in the Netherlands. The battle with water has traditionally been fought on two fronts in that country, that of the rivers that run through the land into the sea, and that of the sea itself. But in other countries, too, you see more and more floating buildings. In cities, it is mainly former port areas that qualify for them, following urban development taking place there to reconnect the city to the water. The same applies to rivers flowing through urban areas, or a lake on which a city is located. There is still space there too, often for other, more public functions than just housing.
Floating architecture is not just a practical solution to a space problem. People tend to gravitate towards water. Near the water, they feel closely connected to nature and still find something like empty space, at least as long as it is not fully built up.
FLOATING OFFICE Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Few buildings demonstrate the potential of floating architecture as aptly as the Floating Office in Rotterdam. Not only is it the largest floating office building in the world, but it stands out for its sustainable technology and recyclable materials, and thus for its environment-friendliness. Besides accommodating the Global Center for Adaptation (GCA), which studies how cities can adapt to climate change, the Floating Office houses the architecture firm Powerhouse Company and the property developer RED Company. At least this exemplary building, designed and developed by the latter two firms in consultation with GCA, will have no problem if the climate continues to warm up.
The Floating Office is located in Rijnhaven, Rotterdam's oldest port area. The quays are high, making it difficult to realise the desired restoration of contact with the water. For this reason, Rotterdam City Council wants to locate floating parks there, as an intermediary between city and river. The Floating Office can be regarded as a kind of pilot project. In line with municipal intentions, it contains public functions besides office space: although the swimming pool could not be open to everyone, there is a spacious deck with a restaurant, and a green roof that welcomes birds and insects.
Perhaps even more important for making the Rijnhaven accessible to the public is that a reliable floating technique has been developed for the Floating Office. The so-called floating body consists of fifteen concrete tanks that, as foundations, give complete freedom in the choice of construction pattern. The generous six-by-six-metre grid chosen for the Floating Office will provide a high degree of flexibility should future modifications prove necessary.
The building is also convincing from an ecological point of view. The floating body acts as a heat regulator, with fluid pouring through pipes within it supplying or removing heat to and from the harbour water; solar panels on the roof generate more electricity than the building itself needs, so that the excess can be supplied to the city; and because the Floating Office is largely constructed of wood, its construction has extracted more CO2 from the atmosphere than it added to it.
All the office floors are surrounded by balconies, and the tall windows offer breathtaking views of the water and the city. More than being a building on land, it immerses you as it were in the vicissitudes of weather and the variability of light - a spectacle that never bores you.
ARCHITECT: POWERHOUSE COMPANY
PHOTO: SEBASTIAN VAN DAMME
PHOTO: MARK SEELEN
PHOTO: MARCEL IJZERMAN
FLOATING FARM Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Where else in the city would there be room for a farm than on the water? Transhipment and trade have disappeared from Rotterdam's Merwedehaven, for the area is being urbanised like many other harbours. The consequence is that the harbour itself, in the past bustling with activity, has become quiet and empty, an open, orphaned space. With the Floating Farm designed by Rotterdam architecture firm Goldsmith, at least some activity is returning. Forty cows graze at the top; the floor below houses manure processing, a feeding system, dairy production, packaging and distribution; and at the very bottom, fruit is added to yoghurt, and rain and waste water is recycled.
A farm in the middle of the city seems to belong to another, distant era. City and countryside have grown apart and no longer appear to have anything to do with each other.
As a result, city dwellers no longer know what they are consuming, and where milk, yoghurt or cheese in the fridge actually come from. So there is every reason to do something about this alienation and to raise awareness about the origin of farm produce. The Floating Farm contributes to this, bringing dairy production and consumption back together. From the quay, you can see cattle grazing, and if you cross the footbridge you can make your way around to get close to the cows, feed them, stroke them, and peer into their big eyes. Going down to a lower floor, you can watch the dairy production process through a glass wall without disturbing those at work. Urban life and cows moreover cooperate in turning organic waste such as potato peels, spent grain from breweries and grass mowings from a nearby football stadium, into cattle feed. The Floating Farm thereby promotes urban recycling and efficient food production.
Organisation, structural principles and use of materials ensure that the farm floats and remains stable at all times. To achieve this, the organisation is stacked: what is heavy is below and what is light is above. The sunken concrete pontoons contain the structural and technical components. The structure of the upper layer is light, with a façade of transparent polycarbonate, while the topmost layer has no more than a canopy to protect it from sun and rain, and is otherwise open.
Not only can it be a surprise for city dwellers to bump into a dairy farm in the harbour, but it must also be a distinct experience for the cows who live on this Floating Farm. You might heartily wish these big, dreamy animals to enjoy a trip over the river from time to time.
ARCHITECT: GOLDSMITH COMPANY PHOTOS: RUBEN DARIO KLEIMEER
FLOATING FOREST Milan, Italy
Most of the world's population lives amid concrete and asphalt. That is why it is the primary mission of the Italian multidisciplinary studio Stefano Boeri Interiors is the greening of cities. Only by seizing every chance to increase greenery, and by creating new opportunities wherever possible, can we contribute to combating climate change and the decline of biodiversity. More greenery also makes the city more liveable. Trees improve air quality, have a cooling effect in summers as they get hotter, and enhance psychological well-being. People feel better when surrounded by greenery, and more at ease. To be precise, it is hard to believe that we have tolerated the disappearance of so much greenery from our living environment.
Stefano Boeri gained fame about ten years ago by designing the Vertical Forest in Milan. In a residential tower, each flat was given a spacious balcony with trees and plants. The concept was a huge success. Vertical Forests, designed by Boeri and other architects, have since sprung up in cities all over the world. On a smaller scale but at least as effective as a provocation is the floating forest that Stefano Boeri Interiors developed together with the shoe brand Timberland for the Tortona Design Week in Milan in 2022.
Both ambitions converged, namely to make the city healthier and shoe production more environment-friendly. With the surprising floating forest located in the river Darsena, they made it clear in a penetrating yet playful and optimistic way that, radically and differently, we have to deal with the planet we live on. Timberland also demonstrated this in the mini-forest: a path led past a display of the shoe brand's ecological innovations.
Apart from that urgent message, the Floating Forest is a gesture to bring people and nature closer together again and, if possible, to reconcile them. Once you enter it, you are free of the traffic and you suddenly find yourself in the sensory wealth of trees and plants. After the Tortona Design Week, the trees were planted in Parco Nord in Milan as part of Forestami, an urban forestry project of metropolitan Milan. The building material was applied in such a way that it was easy to assemble and could also be disassembled for reuse.
ARCHITECT: STEFANO BOERI INTERIORS PHOTOS: DANIELA DICORLETO
PHOTO: LORENZO MASOTTO