Emergency Land for Displaced Tuvalu Residents
(images via: evolo.us)
The nine Pacific islands of Tuvalu aren’t just waiting for some unspecified day when the seas overtake them; it’s already happening. The islands could totally disappear within mere decades. ‘Emergency Land’, a concept by South Korean architect Jinman Choi and graduate student Ji Yong Shim, is an elevated platform topped with skyscrapers that could house the nation’s 11,000 residents. The design brings all of the functions of Tuvalu well above sea level, protecting it from further catastrophe.
Folding Water: Levee for San Francisco
(images via: design boom)
What if solutions to rising water levels could be more hidden, so that they don’t even interfere with existing cities? This fascinating concept by Kuth Ranieri Architects is a ventilated levee that regulates both rising sea levels and the delta and bay waters by mechanically managing the tides. This creates ‘micro bay estuaries’ that maintain the bay’s current ecology. Sea and bay waters would be exchanged through perforated pump wall.
A Post-Diluvian Future
(images via: plusmood)
Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok is at risk from rising sea levels, and architecture firm S+PBA has an interesting solution. This community concept is called ‘A Post-Diluvian Future’, and, like many of the ideas listed here, it embraces an amphibious lifestyle rather than fighting the rise of the water. A recent UN study found that much of Bangkok will need to be abandoned by the middle of the 21st century; this concept creates a whole new urban network above the water, turning it into a ‘Wetropolis’. It would include schools, pubic spaces, hospitals, utilities and industry, and would also involve cultivation of native mangrove forests that could not only bolster shrimp farming but also filter the water and help mitigate carbon dioxide in the air.
Floating Resort in Qatar
(images via: gizmag)
Perhaps the luxury resorts of the future will look something like Amphibious 1000, a real network of islands and floating hotels that is planned for the desert nation of Qatar. Designed by Italian architectural firm Giancarlo Zema Design Group (GZDG), Amphibious 1000 is a semi-submerged resort that will be located in a protected marine area, including residential buildings, offices, a marine park, floating walkways and even underwater marine galleries. Four semi-submerged hotels will include floating jellyfish-like pod suites with underwater viewing decks.
“Aware of the impact that human intervention has always evoked the environment, [our] architecture is distinguished by the intent to conquer new spaces for living in harmony with nature” GZDG told Gizmag.
4 Stunning Solutions from Vincent Callebaut
(images via: inhabitat, treehugger, cubeme)
Some of the most visually stunning (and perhaps pie-in-the-sky) concepts for a future Water World have come from French architect Vincent Callebaut. Highly sculptural in nature, Callebaut’s creations include a whale-shaped floating garden that could provide a space to grow food even as it filters contaminations from a river; a ‘Dragonfly’ floating self-contained city for New York; an earthquake-proof artificial coral reef with 1,000 houses for Haiti; ‘Lilypad’, another floating city, and algae airships – self-contained cities and farms that produce algae for fuel. All of these designs address how humanity’s needs would change in the event of catastrophic climate change, and though they may seem light years away from actually becoming reality, they’re certainly beautiful to look at.

