Carmine Magazine

Lilypad, a floating ecopolis for climate refugees
(Source & Source)

According to forecasts from the GEIC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th Century). The international scientific scene determined that a temperature elevation of 1 degree Celcius will lead to the water levels raising 1 meter. This increase of 1 meter would bring around ground losses of approximately 0.05% in Uruguay, 1% in Egypt, 6% in the Netherlands, 17.5% in Bangladesh and up to 80% in the atoll Majuro in Oceania (Marshall and Kiribati islands and step by step the Maldives islands).

If that first meter is not very funny with more than 50 million people affected in the developing countires, the situation only gets worse with the second one. Which has the potential to produce 250 million climactic refugees and 9% of the Gross domestic product will be threatened if we don’t
begin to take preventative measures quickly in order to protect ourselves from such a threat.

The Lilypad project is one idea, brought to us by the people at Vincent Vallebaut Architectures, for how we can work together in order to survive such a climate crisis, should it happen. This floating Ecopolis will attempt to do two things at once, to widen the amount of sustainable land to offshore territories surrounding deveopled countries such as the Principality of Monaco, but it will also provide housing to future climate refugees. A 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 warm marine streams ascending the Gulf Stream or descending the cold of the Labrador.

It is a true amphibian half aquatic and half terrestrial city, 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. The ballasting is entirely immersed in the artificial lagoon
at the center of the city, which enables the heart of the structure to survive in the subaquatic depths. The multifunctional design of the city is centered around three marinas and three mountains which are dedicated to offices, shopping and entertainment. The whole city is covered by a stratum of planted housing in suspended gardens and crossed by a network of streets and alleyways set in an organic outline. The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, also to explore new modes of living with the sea by building with fluidity collective spaces of proximity, overwhelming spaces of social inclusion that is suitable for all inhabitants denizen or foreign-born, young or old.
(More information.)