A floating city able to adapt to Rising sea levels ? The future is already here, and it was designed precisely by the architects BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and SAMOO (Samsung), the New York company OCEANIX, UN-Habitat , and the Metropolitan City of Busan.
OCEANIX Busan , the project presented last April 26 at the headquarters of the UN , stands as the first sustainable floating city prototype to be built in South Korea.
The first prototype of a sustainable floating city.
As they express in a joint statement: “Two out of five people in the world live less than 100 kilometers from the coast, and 90% of the world's megacities are vulnerable to sea level rise . Flooding is destroying billions of dollars worth of infrastructure and forcing millions of climate refugees from their homes.”
So it was that at the Second UN Round Table on Sustainable Floating Cities —a continuation of the inaugural Roundtable in 2019—decided to present the initiative of OCEANIX , aiming to erect a prototype with a host city.
OCEANIX Busan, the project to be erected in South Korea.
"Today is a critical milestone for all the coastal cities and island nations that are on the front lines of the climate change . We are on our way to deliver OCEANIX Busan and show that the floating infrastructure can create new land for coastal cities looking for sustainable ways to expand out to the ocean, while adapting to the sea level rise said the executive director of OCEANIX Philipp Hofmann.
Sustainable, resistant and seeking to assert a new form of aquatic urbanism, OCEANIX Busan will feature interconnected platforms prepared to welcome a community of 12,000 people, and with the potential to expand to more than 100,000.
A community of 12,000 people will reside at OCEANIX Busan.
Each neighborhood is designed to serve a specific purpose: live, research and stay. "We believe that the OCEANIX floating platforms can be developed at scale to underpin future resilient communities in the most vulnerable coastal locations on the front lines of the climate change ", says Bjarke Ingels, founder and creative director of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.
The low-rise buildings on each platform will feature a range of terraces to create vibrant public spaces, while the floating platforms They will be connected to the ground through connecting bridges, while they are accompanied by production posts and greenhouses.
The future OCEANIX Busan, in South Korea.
The integrated systems OCEANIX BUSAN , on the other hand, will rely on zero waste and circular systems, closed-loop water systems, food, zero net energy, innovative mobility, and coastal habitat regeneration. These interconnected systems will generate 100% of the required operational power on-site through floating and rooftop photovoltaic panels.