Island Life

Are floating, organic, off-grid communities the future of urban development? How might new living environments be built on oceans and lakes, and what exactly might they look like? Land on Water, a project designed by the Copenhagen-based studio for maritime architecture MAST and supported by Austrian construction industry magnate Hubert Rhomberg and venture studio Fragile, is a new, sustainable and flexible approach to building on water.

Easily transportable flat-pack modules serve as the floating foundation for buildings, parks and other infrastructure. The modules are constructed according to the gabion principle (usually metal “cages” filled with various types of debris, often used in civil engineering and to prevent land erosion), but in this case, the “cages” are made of reinforced plastic and contain lightweight, upcycled floatation material, which nevertheless forms a solid and extremely strong foundation for what will be built on top. The first prototype has reached the final phase of development and early modules have already been built and tested.

The Danish architecture firm is constantly on the lookout for different ways to create climate-resilient and sustainable solutions around the world, ranging from floating saunas in Copenhagen harbor to villas in the Maldives and new public spaces in Milan and London. The idea behind these floating projects is to connect cities more strongly with water, create a healthy marine environment and new opportunities for people to develop and interact.