Climate change and urbanization are challenging cities in much of the world to find room for responsible housing for residents. 

Rising sea levels repeatedly flood rapidly-growing slum areas, but residents have few options for homes further from coastlines. Floating cities, Dutch architect Koen Olthuis said in his recent TED Talk, could help cities and residents adapt to climate change and urbanization while they alleviate a host of urban ills.

Eight of the world’s 10 largest cities are located on the coasts, and 70 per cent of the world’s people is expected to live in cities by 2050. As such, it can be a challenge finding adequate room for housing at all levels of affordability in large cities. Olthuis  said two ideas must change in order to enable new solutions: the idea that cities are static, and the idea that cities are full.

In place of the more static cities of the past and present, Olthuis envisions a dynamic city that adapts to change easily.

“In an ideal world, we would have a city that is ready for buildings to change, so each time that something happens you can bring in new buildings,” he said.

He pointed out that cities were regarded as full in the past, until Elisha Otis developed the elevator and cities began to grow vertically. The next frontier, Olthuis believes, could be building where there is not even land.

“Our generation has to look at water; most of the big cities worldwide are next to the water; Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, they all have water and we don’t use it, not for building,” he said...Continue Reading

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