SITE SELECTION, WHERE ON WATER: the shore versus the open sea
I can hardly imagine another landscape allowing such creative freedom as the expansive mirror of the sea. The benefits to founding the first-of-its-kind floating metropolis out on the water by the shore greatly outnumber the challenges.
The present paper argues that the surest means to bringing the project to fruition, considering its scale and difficulty, may be not simply to convince of its plausibility and benefits, but to prove its indispensability.
I can hardly imagine another landscape allowing such creative freedom as the expansive mirror of the sea. The benefits to founding the first-of-its-kind floating metropolis out on the water by the shore greatly outnumber the challenges.
The present paper argues that the surest means to bringing the project to fruition, considering its scale and difficulty, may be not simply to convince of its plausibility and benefits, but to prove its indispensability.
An entity sufficiently powerful to trigger and later nurture the nascent floating urban typology is the existing coastal Metropolis: an entity in actual critical need of such a massive undertaking, as a means for its further proliferation if not survival. Ever expanding beyond its means, the established coastal city is ever fumbling for balance and the means to safeguard its integrity and prosperity. Its voracious appetite for resources may be channeled into sustainable expation over sea instead of continued expansion over land at the cost of global non-renewable resources. The prize of this approach is the opportunity of applying only mostly the best of ourselves into building these brand new cities.
Why not far out on the unregulated open sea instead of by the shore? It is difficult to argue for regular people numbering in tens and hundreds of thousands to volunteer in a rickety socio-political experiment in the middle of some ocean, given the reputation of the sea and seaside sovereign nations as consistently unforgiving actors. The first Floating City by the shore must succeed, so that others may follow in order to de-sress the land, restore natural overland habitats and repair and expand the marine ones.
EMERGENCE: “budding, in biology, is a form of asexual reproduction in which a new individual develops from some generative anatomical point (the first Borough Islet) of the parent organism (the Land City). The initial protuberance of proliferating cytoplasm or cells (- the multitude of Borough Islets), the bud (- aggregated as the greater Mirror City) eventually develops into an organism duplicating the parent”, in the same way the floating city increasingly mirrors its original host, the land (dry) city. – Encyclopedia Britannica.
The added notion, that “the new individual may separate to exist independently, or the buds may remain attached, forming aggregates or colonies“ (E.Brit.), is also relevant to the experimental science of the new floating urban typology. It could mean that the floating city becoming partially or completely segregated over time, in an administrative and ultimately even in a morphological interpretation, possibly through a process of shedding some mature floating islet units (- and them floating off to seek out other existing coastal conurbations, appropriate to seeding new Mirror Cities).
The added notion, that “the new individual may separate to exist independently, or the buds may remain attached, forming aggregates or colonies“ (E.Brit.), is also relevant to the experimental science of the new floating urban typology. It could mean that the floating city becoming partially or completely segregated over time, in an administrative and ultimately even in a morphological interpretation, possibly through a process of shedding some mature floating islet units (- and them floating off to seek out other existing coastal conurbations, appropriate to seeding new Mirror Cities).
CONTEXTUAL SHAPE: Where it is located and who it’s meant for will influence what the Islets and the greater floating city look like. Floating Alexandria and Floating Montpelier will be decidedly different looking (and perhaps functioning )places. The manner in which the Mirror City Islet is conceptually and functionally programmed allows the employment of localized functional typologies, building skins, construction materials etc.
PROLIFERATION: driven by few geographical limitations and by using easily renewable, locally abundant food and mineral resources (accretion, etc.), while employing durable advanced technologies.
REPRODUCTION OF THE CITY: shedding, an Islet lifting anchor and drifting to a fresh location; seeding (- the notion and the know-how); growing (a new floating Mirrored City from the resettled prototype Islet)
PERPETUATION: enabled by sustainable expansion, competitiveness, adaptability, durable and easily replaceable building materials, cataclysm resistant design (anthropic or natural). The concourse of the two cities. over-sea and over-land joined at the shore, is their coalescence into the future perpetual Metropolis.
Financial and demographic considerations
Building the floating city is determined mainly by a combination of necessity and incentives. This chapter discusses the incentives.
Each or the three Islet levels is designed in such a way that they can pay for themselves. What they have to offer is: public spaces for cultural events and numerous leisure activities and their facilities on the Macrostructure, business ventures opportunities on the vast Walkways level, and state of the art residencies inside the Superstructures – all on the first of its kind landmark waterfront, downtown.
As an alternative to a single developer building everything and then selling and renting the entire Islet bit by bit, one easily identifies four possible parties, paying to make the project float: the permanent residents (the Islanders), the public/private investors, the renting business owners, and the visitors. If each Islet would be a simple gated community, then the added costs of the Macrostructure, Infrastructure and residential Superstructures would go into the apartment prices. It is not the case here, as the public and private sectors play major roles in the construction and capitalization of the complex. While the Flyer Superstructures are mostly bought and paid for by the permanent residents, the business oriented Walkway Level and the leisured Macrostructure advertises themselves as new landmark real estate just across from the old downtown waterfront, open to any interested public or private business interests.
The public Macrostructure: The major player on this level is the municipality (and/or other private investors). Islanders, land residents and tourists alike are the recipients of the nature parks, beaches, marinas, culture domes and public facilities.
The public and semi-public Walkways: A good measure of seasonal small business from outside the Islet, rent the new waterfront property at a premium. The Islanders themselves also trade on the Walkway levels. Necessary administrative facilities are permanently located on this level.
The private and semi-public Flyers: Apartments privately owned and servicing the Islanders. Also other spaces such vertical subsistence gardens, gyms, libraries, ateliers, hotel, open restaurant.
This general purposing model of the three prototype Islet levels, is to some extent flexible and open to interpretation, as long as heavy pedestrian traffic is kept midway between a waterline green level and a sky private level, as this is the spirit of the place.
The permanent size of an Islet (or at least initial, as the Islet can be augmented at any future date), is dictated by the number of residential superstructures that the Islet in question will incorporate in its initial design – the Flyers in this case -, and their size. In the present case of the prototype Borough Islet there are six Flyer superstructures, with two apartment wings each x 7 floors x 7 apartments per floor. That amounts to 588 apartments x 4 max. occupants = 2352 Islet residents as permanent inhabitants, or Islanders.
Each Islet, as a village-sized administrative district of the larger Floating City, requires a number of public and semipublic buildings to function. For its size, the prototype Borough Islet will incorporate for the Islanders alone, an elementary school, local convenience stores and services. As more Islets are added to the floating city, the population increase will consequently demand a greater diversity of public services. Five to eight interconnected Islets will have the equivalent capacity of a town (12.500 – 20.000 people), which needs a high-school, light industry, a civic center, that will be spread among the Islets. The equivalent of five to eight towns congregated on the waterfront already constitute a city (80.000 - 130.000 people), which translates into additional public functions, such as a city centre, hospital, community colleges and heavy industry.
The numbers and functions discussed in this paragraph regard the Flyer superstructures and the Islanders exclusively, and may physically reflect across all three levels of the Islet, not just inside of the Superstructures. Nevertheless, the Islet’s other two levels, the Macrostructure and the business Walkways, are designed to work as part of the extended Metropolis (Land City + Floating City), meaning that the constant influx of commercial and touristic interest from the mainland will manifest itself into the structure and functionality of the respective levels, by having them permanently incorporate added public (cultural and administrative) and semi-public (business and services) functionality. This design philosophy sets the Borough Islet further apart from a Triton City floating unit.
Building the floating city is determined mainly by a combination of necessity and incentives. This chapter discusses the incentives.
Each or the three Islet levels is designed in such a way that they can pay for themselves. What they have to offer is: public spaces for cultural events and numerous leisure activities and their facilities on the Macrostructure, business ventures opportunities on the vast Walkways level, and state of the art residencies inside the Superstructures – all on the first of its kind landmark waterfront, downtown.
As an alternative to a single developer building everything and then selling and renting the entire Islet bit by bit, one easily identifies four possible parties, paying to make the project float: the permanent residents (the Islanders), the public/private investors, the renting business owners, and the visitors. If each Islet would be a simple gated community, then the added costs of the Macrostructure, Infrastructure and residential Superstructures would go into the apartment prices. It is not the case here, as the public and private sectors play major roles in the construction and capitalization of the complex. While the Flyer Superstructures are mostly bought and paid for by the permanent residents, the business oriented Walkway Level and the leisured Macrostructure advertises themselves as new landmark real estate just across from the old downtown waterfront, open to any interested public or private business interests.
The public Macrostructure: The major player on this level is the municipality (and/or other private investors). Islanders, land residents and tourists alike are the recipients of the nature parks, beaches, marinas, culture domes and public facilities.
The public and semi-public Walkways: A good measure of seasonal small business from outside the Islet, rent the new waterfront property at a premium. The Islanders themselves also trade on the Walkway levels. Necessary administrative facilities are permanently located on this level.
The private and semi-public Flyers: Apartments privately owned and servicing the Islanders. Also other spaces such vertical subsistence gardens, gyms, libraries, ateliers, hotel, open restaurant.
This general purposing model of the three prototype Islet levels, is to some extent flexible and open to interpretation, as long as heavy pedestrian traffic is kept midway between a waterline green level and a sky private level, as this is the spirit of the place.
The permanent size of an Islet (or at least initial, as the Islet can be augmented at any future date), is dictated by the number of residential superstructures that the Islet in question will incorporate in its initial design – the Flyers in this case -, and their size. In the present case of the prototype Borough Islet there are six Flyer superstructures, with two apartment wings each x 7 floors x 7 apartments per floor. That amounts to 588 apartments x 4 max. occupants = 2352 Islet residents as permanent inhabitants, or Islanders.
Each Islet, as a village-sized administrative district of the larger Floating City, requires a number of public and semipublic buildings to function. For its size, the prototype Borough Islet will incorporate for the Islanders alone, an elementary school, local convenience stores and services. As more Islets are added to the floating city, the population increase will consequently demand a greater diversity of public services. Five to eight interconnected Islets will have the equivalent capacity of a town (12.500 – 20.000 people), which needs a high-school, light industry, a civic center, that will be spread among the Islets. The equivalent of five to eight towns congregated on the waterfront already constitute a city (80.000 - 130.000 people), which translates into additional public functions, such as a city centre, hospital, community colleges and heavy industry.
The numbers and functions discussed in this paragraph regard the Flyer superstructures and the Islanders exclusively, and may physically reflect across all three levels of the Islet, not just inside of the Superstructures. Nevertheless, the Islet’s other two levels, the Macrostructure and the business Walkways, are designed to work as part of the extended Metropolis (Land City + Floating City), meaning that the constant influx of commercial and touristic interest from the mainland will manifest itself into the structure and functionality of the respective levels, by having them permanently incorporate added public (cultural and administrative) and semi-public (business and services) functionality. This design philosophy sets the Borough Islet further apart from a Triton City floating unit.