World's First Floating City that Adapts to Sea Level Rise Unveiled: OCEANIX Busan

OCEANIX, UN-Habitat, and Busan Metropolitan City of the Republic of Korea unveiled OCEANIX Busan, the world's first prototype sustainable floating city designed by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group and SAMOO. OCEANIX Busan is a breakthrough technology aimed at providing sustainable solutions for coastal cities facing severe land shortages that are compounded by climatic threats.

According to the UN, two out of every five people in the world live within 100 kilometres of the coast, and 90 per cent of megacities worldwide are vulnerable to rising sea levels. Flooding destroys billions of dollars worth of infrastructure and forces millions of climate refugees to leave their homes. Rapid urban population growth pushes people closer to the water, driving housing costs to prohibitive levels and squeezing the poorest families out.

OCEANIX Busan is a sustainable floating community designed to accommodate 12,000 residents and visitors on interconnected platforms totalling 15.5 acres. The platforms connect to land with link-span bridges, framing the sheltered blue lagoon of floating recreation, art, and performance outposts. The low-rise buildings on each platform feature soft lines and terraces for indoor-outdoor living, activating the network of vibrant public spaces. OCEANIX Busan is designed to organically transform and adapt over time based on the needs of Busan. It has the potential to expand to accommodate more than 100,000 people.

OCEANIX Busan is the world's first prototype of a sustainable floating community. Each neighbourhood is designed to serve a specific purpose, such as living, research, and lodging, with between 30,000 to 40,000 square meters of mixed-use programs per platform. The floating platforms are accompanied by dozens of productive outposts and greenhouses.

OCEANIX Busan has six integrated systems: zero waste and circular systems, closed-loop water systems, food, net-zero energy, innovative mobility, and coastal habitat regeneration. These interconnected systems will generate 100% of the required operational energy on-site through floating and rooftop photovoltaic panels. Similarly, each neighbourhood will treat and replenish its own water, reduce and recycle resources, and provide innovative urban agriculture.

“As Mayor of the Metropolitan City of Busan, I take seriously our commitment to the credo ‘The First to the Future.' We joined forces with UN-Habitat and OCEANIX to be the first to prototype and scale this audacious idea because our common future is at stake in the face of sea level rise and its devastating impact on coastal cities,” said Mayor Park Heong-Joon, who has set an ambitious agenda, including turning Busan into a green smart city and launching a bid for World Expo 2030.

OCEANIX, a blue tech company based in New York, led a team of the world's best designers, engineers, and sustainability experts in designing the flood-proof prototype. The Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Ms Maimunah Mohd Sharif, said at the Roundtable, “We cannot solve today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. We need to innovate solutions to global challenges. But in this drive for innovation, let’s be inclusive and equitable and ensure we leave no one and no place behind."

Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, said, "OCEANIX's modular maritime neighbourhood will be a prototype for sustainable and resilient cities. As our first manifestation of this new form of waterborne urbanism, OCEANIX Busan will expand the city's unique character and culture from dryland into the water around it. We believe OCEANIX's floating platforms can be developed at scale to serve as the foundations for future resilient communities in the most vulnerable coastal locations on.

 

Press release courtesy of OCEANIX

Credit: ©OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group