Floating architecture is not the future, it’s already here

As we seek to tackle global warming, there are realities of our changing climate that we already have to live with. Sea levels have been rising at a rapid pace, with US coastlines projected to rise 10 to 12 inches by 2050.

The UN Secretary-General has warned that entire communities and countries could disappear in coming decades as a result; the danger is especially acute for the estimated 900 million people who live in low-lying coastal areas.

Many of these vulnerable communities have already suffered devastating floods. But instead of building breakwaters to try to keep out water or building houses on stilts, some architects are designing a future where we live with – and on – water.

Proposals for entire “climate resilient” floating cities (including an ambitious ocean settlement in South Korea and one big enough to house 20,000 people in the Maldives) have made headlines. But existing projects, from Lagos to Rotterdam, are showing what life on water can be like and how they can be scaled up.

A new exhibition at the Nieuwe Instituut in the Dutch city, “Water Cities Rotterdam”, features the work of NLÉ, an architectural firm led by Kunlé Adeyemi who has been researching and testing floating architecture around the world. A series of floating pavilions, which evolved from the acclaimed Makoko Floating School project, are located in the museum’s lagoons.

Makoko is a central district of Lagos, Nigeria, where thousands of people live in informal wooden structures built on stilts in the lagoon. Inspired by the settlement, Adeyemi built a school for its residents in 2012.

Via video call, the architect reflected on a major flood that hit Lagos in 2011: “Whole streets were covered with water and I realized that the cities would flood, but the people of Makoko were already adapting. It was like an epiphany.”

The A-shaped wooden triangular school was accessible by boat and included sheltered classrooms and a community play space for dozens of children. Instead of standing on stilts, the structure floated on a base of plastic barrels. The school collapsed a few years later, although the NLÉ clarified that it was always intended to be temporary, claiming that the lack of maintenance and collective management led to its deterioration.

Learning from this project and ongoing research – much of which appears in his new book, “African Water Cities” – Adeyemi’s practice developed the Makoko Floating System (MFS), a group of sustainable timber structures that can be rapidly assembled and disassembled where and when needed. The system is modular, with more efficient steel connections and highly designed to meet European building codes.

The MFS comprises prefabricated flat parts that can be built by a team of five people in two weeks, without heavy equipment or cranes. “Our goal is to create an inclusive solution that leaves no one behind in this phase of climate adaptation,” Adeyemi said, “and to ensure that as the world evolves, we can bring in the most vulnerable communities.”

The system offers small, medium and large versions of the triangular A-frame structure. Adeyemi believes that MFS can be used for a variety of purposes, from housing to education, and is “a solution that can be applied globally”. He built the system in several countries – including Italy, Belgium and China – to test it in different weather and water conditions.

In 2021, the concept took semi-permanent roots in Mindelo, Cape Verde’s port city on the coast of West Africa, in the form of a floating “music centre”. Spread over three triangular wooden and steel pavilions, the cultural center includes a performance space, bar, canteen and recording studio floating in the sea and connected to the shore by a footbridge.

Learning to live with water

The fact that an iteration of Adeyemi’s MFS is now on display in Rotterdam is perhaps fitting: Rotterdam is the Netherlands’ most vulnerable city to rising water. With 90% of the city below sea level, the sight of floating architecture is nothing new. Examples of countless design firms grappling with a watery future can be found across the city.

A project completed this year called Nassauhaven features 17 floating homes created by local firm Public Domain Architects (PDA). The design won a competition held by the city government to develop a pilot floating architecture project that could help secure Rotterdam’s future.

“We are a delta town and the water levels are changing,” said PDA CEO, Pieter Figdor . He notes that interest in floating buildings is growing – in recent years, a floating office complex and a floating farm have also opened in the city.

Nassauhaven was promoted as the city’s first floating residential area. With its houses arranged in an orderly row, the project is known as a “floating street”. The wooden houses are on concrete pontoons attached by posts to the harbor floor – and by walkways to the land.

They rise and fall gently with the daily tides, remaining stable and comfortable for the inhabitants. The buildings are designed to be energy neutral, with sustainability features such as solar panels, biomass heating and on-site wastewater purification.

Figdor sees building over water as one of the few options left when it comes to new housing in Rotterdam. He also believes it’s tougher than simply building barriers to keep water away from buildings on land. “In the water, you are in the safest place to adapt to the climate,” he said.

PDA is working on more floating projects, in Bangladesh and others in Rotterdam. The company also hopes to expand the Nassauhaven pilot project.

“Now we would like to do a floating project of around 100 houses,” Figdor said. Adeyemi has similar plans for an MFS neighborhood in Amsterdam, which is already home to houseboat communities, with his company working to expand its system of floating structures to include multi-story buildings.

Adeyemi believes that, to date, there has not been enough research into how we can build and live in water, which makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface. The work on display at the Nieuwe Instituut, and in the architect’s new book, intends to start filling this gap in the face of rising sea levels.

“In the near future, human civilization will live more on water,” he said. “Why fight the water when you can learn to live with it?”