Using some of the same design techniques used for responsive air chambers in submarines, Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a floating plaza/mixed retail center that will float on and adapt to the water level depending on how many people are currently walking on it. The plaza, which is linked to land via a comprehensive masterplan on the coast of Lake Worth Lagoon, will also include housing (whose property values will hopefully never be underwater). The plaza will also feature "an organic restaurant with its own hydroponic cultivations," making it a potentially self-sustaining enterprise.
The inventive use of underwater vessel technology is, to director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding partner Carlo Ratti, an entirely new way of conceiving architecture. Ratti describes his project as "carving" into the water. He goes on to say that “with this project, we aim to reclaim West Palm Beach’s connection to the natural elements that surround it, and give shape to a vibrant new district that will serve as a creative catalyst for the entire city. The project also showcases how a new technology allows us to radically redefine the relationship between architecture and water.”
For more on water-related architecture and urban planning:
2 Comments
so, is it floating or sand-set? besides, have you heard of rising sea levels? while the people of Kiribati have to migrate to higher ground, the people of south beach go underwater, how empathetic is that? architects on the foreground again, never a lame moment.
If the new plaza is the middle object in the above image (between lagoon and ocean), then it does appear to be less "floating" and more built on a sandbar...
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