WATER METROPOLITAN: FEASIBILITY OF WATER STRUCTURES IN ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

Coastal Cities fuelled by the trade economy grow into dense urban landscapes. The growth of the world’s population, coupled with rapid globalization, allows the percentage of people living in cities to augment significantly every year. This in turn causes a cumulative demand on the need for land space. Furthermore, climate change due to global warming provokes water levels to rise annually with more coastal flooding occurring in various cities around the world. This causes estate damages, disruption of economy and even loss of lives. With many of these coastal cities estimated to be under water by 2100, these constant measures of keeping the rising waters at bay in coastal cities cannot hold as a long-term solution. There is an urgency to venture out into the waters to establish a sustainable built environment that does not compromise with the quality of life and its surrounding environment for future generations. Urban Cities have continually returned to increasing verticality and land reclamation as adequate solutions to be content with. However, with concerns on pricing, safety issues and encroachment of water, going higher might not be a suitable answer for coastal cities. Secondly, the cost of land reclamation, its environmental impacts and a certainty that reclaimed land is not a long lasting solution against the continually rising water levels. With water making up 72% of the earth’s surface, it is only logical for the next step to be towards employing water as a suitable habitat. Koen Olthuis believes that a cohesion of land and water as habitable and usable space is the next step in combating land shortage and climate change. However, that is still dependent upon land. Therefore there has to be adequate preparation towards transitioning from coastal architecture to amphibious solutions and finally to self-sufficient open water schemes.