LILYPAD, A FLOATING ECOPOLIS
Source: Vincent Callebaut Architectures, Bjarke Ingels Group
Further to the anthropogenic activity, the climate warms up and the ocean level increases, leading to significant ground losses. Whereas the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates “fatten” their beach with billion of euros to build their protective dams for a decade, the project “Lilypad” deals with a tenable solution to the water rising!
Actually, facing the worldwide ecological crisis, this floating Ecopolis aims to grant the housing of future climatic refugees of the next submerged ultra-marine territories such as the Polynesian atolls. New biotechnological prototype of ecologic resilience dedicated to the nomadism and the urban ecology in the sea, Lilypad travels on the water line of the oceans, from the equator to the poles following the marine streams warm ascending of the Gulf Stream or cold descending of the Labrador.
It is a true amphibian half-aquatic and half-terrestrial city, of total surface area 500,000 m2, able to accommodate 50,000 inhabitants and inviting the biodiversity to develop its fauna and flora around a central lagoon of soft water collecting and purifying the rain waters.
This artificial lagoon is entirely immersed ballasting thus the city. It enables to live in the heart of the subaquatic depths. The multifunctional programming is based on three marinas and three mountains dedicated respectively to the work, the shops and the entertainments.
The whole set is covered by a stratum of planted housing in suspended gardens and crossed by a network of streets and alleyways with organic outline. The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of the couple Human / Nature.