VIDEO. Faced with rising waters, the era of floating and mobile cities is dawning

In Amsterdam, “Special Envoy” met an architect who does not see rising waters as a threat, but rather as an opportunity to enter a new era: that of mobile cities. The capital is on the right track, since it already has 2,500 floating homes, resistant to storms and floods.

In his “Waterstudio” (“Water Agency”) specializing in floating structures, Koen Olthuis has designed some of them. As for the one of which he shows us the model, it is worthy of a science fiction film. Yet it already exists – in Miami. It is a motorized villa mounted on stilts, capable of floating and even sailing like a boat. In the event of a storm (it’s supposed to withstand a force 4 hurricane), just press a button and it rises 6 meters above the surface. But given its price (5 million euros), it is not the answer to the challenge of adapting to rising waters…

The rising water, “an additional territory”

However, there is nothing to prevent this revolutionary technology from being applied on a larger scale, by building floating districts. Koen Olthuis is already doing it in the Dutch capital. This would be a solution to coastal erosion: in the event of the coastline receding, new structures could be added facing the coastline, or those that already exist could be moved. Thus, the rising water, instead of representing a danger, would offer an additional territory.

Extract from “Coastline: cities soon to be swallowed up”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on March 9, 2023.