Student-designed floating islands could house Brazil's offshore oil workers

2014-02-25T19:18:00-05:00

Your assignment is to come up with an idea so revolutionary that it could be considered an important advance in industrial design. Students at Rice University in Houston accomplished that with plans for a floating city that is being considered by one of the world's largest oil companies. Last year, the students won the inaugural Odebrecht Award for a radical design of man-made floating islands where as many as 25,000 oil workers and their families could live.

Previously featured in our Student Works and Screen/Print series, "The Petropolis of Tomorrow" proposes a new style of floating company towns to aid Brazil in offshore oil findings. NPR now reports that the project has surpassed its academic role to be considered by Petrobas, a Brazilian oil company, as a potential solution for housing workers on man-made islands within the next five years.

Neeraj Bhatia, author of "Petropolis" and professor of the Rice University students who conceived of the project, is also co-editor of the upcoming Bracket 4 issue, [takes action]. [takes action] submissions are open until March 10.

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2012-12-18T12:58:00-05:00

For the latest in the Student Works series Archinect featured The Petropolis of Tomorrow: Drift & Drive...a proposed solution for Petrobras...to relocate workers offshore...Thayer-D was curious "What kind of job do students who do this kind of work expect to do?" and amphibious agreed "For me, the real problem with this project is its weakness in experimentation, substance, and form. What is radical here really?"

For the latest in the Student Works series Archinect featured The Petropolis of Tomorrow: Drift & Drive. Joanna Luo, Weijia Song, Alex Yuen, students at Rice School of Architecture completed the project working with their advisor Neeraj Bhatia.

Consisting of a system of floating islands strategically located along the natural drift current of the Brazilian coast, the project is a proposed solution for Petrobras, the Brazilian petrochemical company, to relocate workers offshore, as rigs are established ever further from the coast, increasing the transportation cost of both workers and oil.

Thayer-D was curious "What kind of job do students who do this kind of work expect to do? I know it's the schools that promote this stuff, it's no different than when I went to school 20 years ago, but it still strikes me as academic malpractice" and amphibious agreed "with most of the comments here and I think they point out a deeper problem in this project. I am a truly believer of ex...

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Student-designed floating islands could house Brazil's offshore oil workers

Editor's Picks #294