Living on water

By Yevegeny Daal and Aimée Wattimurij

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Introduction We started by researching for materials that are water resistant and can be used on buildings. We wanted to keep this research in our own department of study so we started by looking for sustainable materials that can be used by buildings. We found the material EPDM, which is water resistant and isolating. The water resistant aspect took our attention and we asked ourselves if it would be possible to live underneath the water. When we went on with our research the biggest question was: is living underneath the water even possible? This is why we came up with the question ‘How can we survive the flooding of the parts of the world?’

We did a research for examples of buildings under water and above water (float). After we collected the examples we went searching for people and companies to talk to about the subject. We found two and spoke to one of them who has answer our questions about sustainable and useful materials, technics, forms, highs and more. These things formed the fundament of our own design of a city on the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Continent Living on water p. 4-9 Existing examples: important aspects Living under water p. 10-11

Existing examples Materials p. 12-13 Interview with and advice of Frits Schoute p. 14-17 Conclusion: The Design p. 18 Other sources p. 19

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Living on water Existing examples: important aspects

Floating Pavilion (The Netherlands)

By DeltaSync1 and Public Domain Architects2

Vision/Cause: Icon for floating buildings and a waking up for people. Materials: The dome is made of a steal frame and strained EFTE-foils, which

is a 100 times lighter then glass. The base is made of polystyrene (2,5 meters thick) covered by concrete. The use of ‘phase change materials’ (materials with a high heat of fusion) ensure that the building less quickly heats of cools down, so there is less artificial energy needed.

Technics: It cleans water out of the Maas for different purposes.                                                                                                                          1http://www.deltasync.nl/deltasync/index.php?id=homepage&L=1  2http://www.publicdomainarchitecten.nl  

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AutArkhome (The Netherlands)

By Aut-Ark B.V.3

Production: This design van be produced in series, through which the production will be cheaper and the houses can be placed in groups.

Technics: Sustainable energy by solar panels, surface waters will be cleaned and used and dirty water will first be purified before throwing back into the river. The solar panels will also be used for bringing the air on the right temperature inside the house.

                                                                                                                         3http://www.autarkhome.nl  

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LIFT house (Bangladesh) LIFT stands for Low Income Flood-proof Technology4. Another word for this kind of design is an amphibious house. The house is built on land but starts floating when there is a flood.

By Prithula Proson

Vision/cause: Flood danger Materials: The house is made of bamboo because it’s a light waited material

and can be locally delivered. One side of the building floats on plastic bottles and the other side is floating on a hallow that is covered with ferroconcrete. The whole building is pinned at poles of bamboo, so that the LIFT house can’t float away from his spot.

Technics: Self-sufficiency: solar panels, catching and purifying rainwater.

                                                                                                                         4http://www.lifthouse.org  

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Floating schools (Bangladesh and Nigeria)

By Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha5 (Bangladesh)

Vision/cause: Replacement for schools and school busses because of the flood danger. They can r be used as a living space either.

Technics: Solar panels for energy that can be used for the electronics on the boat.

By NLÉ Architects6 (Nigeria)

Vision/cause: They focused on the flexibility of the design, so the building can

be shipped and can also be used for different purposes like a hospital or a private residence.

Materials: The basis is a wooden triangle which makes the building safe and

affordable. You need less material for a triangle than for a square and when you use less material you also need less driving force and less energy. A triangle also has a central centre of gravity which creates the stability of the building. The whole construction is floating on recycled plastic barrels

Technics: Sustainable energy through solar panels.

                                                                                                                         5http://www.shidhulai.org  6http://www.nleworks.com  

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Seasteading Institute (VS) Seasteading is homesteading the high seas.

By The Seasteading Institute7

Vision/cause: The company wants to create an independent community which has his own government and laws. The nations will test new ideas before all governments around the world will change.

Seasteasing Institute believes in eight moral imperatives

1.   Feed the hungry 2.   Cure the sick 3.   Restore the oceans 4.   Enrich the poor 5.   Clean the atmosphere 6.   Live in balance with nature 7.   Power civilization sustainably

Basic design: The design has to be:

-   Safe: able to survive heavy storms. -   Economical: affordable for everyone. -   Comfortable -   Modular: expandable. Sections can join, separate and

reconnect.

                                                                                                                         7https://www.seasteading.org  

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Lilypad (Dubai)

By Vincent Callebaut8

Vision/cause: Space/place for climate refugees Materials: The outside is made of polyester fibers and titaniumdioxide.

These substances can break down atmospheric pollution under the influence of sunlight. The rest of exterior mostly planted with trees and other favourable plants.

Technics: Self-sufficient, it hasn’t any CO2-emissions, purifying of rain- and seawater and sustainable energy through sunlight, water and thermal.

                                                                                                                         8http://vincent.callebaut.org/object/080523_lilypad/lilypad/projects  

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Living under water Existing examples

Hilton Maldives Undersea Restaurant, Rangali Island Ithaa, which means mother-of-pearl in Dhivehi, an undersea restaurant located 5 meters (16 ft) below sea level at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in Alif Dhaal Atoll in the Republic of Maldives.

The 5-by-9-metre (16 by 30 ft) mostly acrylic structure has a capacity of 14 people and is encased in R-Cast acrylic with a transparent roof offering a 270° panoramic underwater view. The restaurant was designed and co4nstructed by M.J. Murphy Ltd – a design consultancy based in New Zealand – and was opened on in April 2005, describing itself as the world's first undersea restaurant. Food served in the restaurant has changed over the years and has more recently been described as contemporary European with Asian influences.

Ithaa's entrance is a spiral staircase in a thatched pavilion at the end of a jetty. The tsunami which followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake topped at 0.31 meters (1 ft 0 in) below the staircase entrance, and caused no damage to the restaurant.

The restaurant is also used for private parties and weddings. In April 2010, to celebrate Ithaa's 5th anniversary, the restaurant could be booked as an overnight residence. This "underwater suite" promotion continued until April 2011.

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Sea Underwater Restaurant – Anantara, Kihavah – Maldives

AtAnantara Kihavah Villa there is an incredible underwater structure in the Maldives comes in the form of the acclaimed restaurant, Sea.Fire.Salt.Sky. that is made up of four different floors. Each floor has a distinctive theme and atmosphere taken from the name of the restaurant, with the Sky floor located on the roof and the Sea floor underwater. With elegant décor and glass walls showing the ocean wildlife, the restaurant is able to cater for a large number of people. It even comes with its own underwater wine cellar stocked with a collection of high quality bottles.

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Materials Materials that can be used for make building or houses on the water can be concrete, steel, foam, Acrylic glass or glass and EPDM. Each can be used depends on how or in what form you're going to make your construction for example Concrete Reinforced is used in almost each new structure, be it as foundation, prefabricated walls and floors or monolithic skin. However, the possibilities of concrete are fairly limited. Concrete has a high compressive strength, but needs to be combined with steel for a high tensile strength. And best way is to avoid making you're construction to sink is to make it at least hollow inside so it can float. Other material that can be used just like concrete is foam with reinforcement the only difference between concrete and foam will be that with foam the building is going to be more lighter and more easy to work with.

Another material Acrylic glass, also known as Polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA, while technically not a type of glass, is often used as an alternative for glass. The material was first made available for commercial use under the name Plexiglas by Rohm and Haas Company in 1936, but has had many adaptations with different names such as Acrylite, Lucite and Perspex.

Acrylic glass and conventional glass look very similar because they are both transparent, but behave very differently. Conventional glass is brittle while acrylic glass will crack and dent before breaking into shards. While it is more vulnerable to scratching than glass, acrylic glass can be enhanced with a coating or film to prevent scratching. It has less than half the density of conventional and tempered glass and has a higher impact strength than both glass types when compared by weight. When comparing sheets of the same thickness, tempered glass and acrylic glass are more or less equal in strength. The tensile strength of acrylic glass, however, is lower than that of tempered glass.

Acrylic glass has a higher transparency than conventional glass which bends the light and can have a green appearance, especially when used as thick windows for a pool or aquarium. Basically, the thicker the glass pane the more light is absorbed, while acrylic glass doesn’t absorb any light. Acrylic glass has a warm touch because of its higher insulating value. However, tempered glass can withstand much higher temperatures without melting or otherwise deforming. This makes tempered glass the preferred choice when fire safety measures prevent the use of acrylic glass.

When comparing the design flexibilities of tempered glass to acrylic glass the latter jumps ahead in every category. Acrylic glass can be processed in a similar way as

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wood, making it easy to cut in different shapes. It can also be thermoformed into almost any three dimensional shape. Tempered glass can’t be cut after it has been processed and has limited capabilities when thermoformed. When installed the acrylic glass will expand and contract far more than glass.

Tempered glass and acrylic glass each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Because acrylic glass has higher transparency, higher impact strength and is light weight it is the most suited for underwater applications. Because of fire regulations acrylic glass is almost never used in buildings. While fire is a serious threat for an underwater structure, it mainly is because fire is very dangerous in close quarters such as a submarine. By the time the acrylic glass fails it is already too late and the crew should have abandoned ship or extinguished the fire.

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Interview and advice of Frits Schoute Frits Schoute is a mathematician who works for the telecommunication industry and teacher at The University in Delft.When he was working at the Force generation mobile telecommunication he noticed how fast the communications was developing and that there were other needs of mankind and since he was successful, money wise he decided to retired at the age 53. After that he started with the projectecoboot9 along with Bart van Bueren, with the idea of us human can start living at sea. We are facing with an issue that in the future that we don't have any more space to live or build anything more on the land since the amount of humans are increasing every year on planet earth. So Frits come with idea "why not live on sea since there more space there than on the land?" So there is more possibility for the refugees that can come and work there have a decent living and they could even apply to work in Europe start their new life there while they are staying at the floating island. In his vision the metropolises of our planet will extend unto the sea later in the future. But Frits idea didn't get big result cause some thinks that it wasn't that important to build such thing yet and slowly the idea of Frits lost interest but in the future there they might really start working for a floating island cause every year the global warming keep on changing.

Stability wise would be better to have both, for the lower part should be like a basement. The lower part doesn't have to be same as big as the upper part. the thing is when you're going to build something that floats you will need stabilization around it cause the waves of the sea might damage it. when making a top living space and a bottom living space you will need a small interaction space that connect both of them and that helps stabilize the water waves too. Other ways minimize the force of the force of the water is by building pumps around the building so it can push toward the waves.

There is a student that from the Delft University that show that you can make a five story building in a lake. The reason why it's much better to make a 5 story building on a lake instead of making it on the sea is that you have less wave and less wind and the conditions are not as hard as on the lake.

                                                                                                                         9  http://www.ecoboot.nl

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In the interview Frits Schoute refered to Rutger de graaf10:

“I have, on the basis of the current global energy consumption and space to live and food, calculated that we have a deficit of 22 million square kilometers of land in 2050. That's twice the size of China! The habitable and productive use of less than 1 percent of the ocean surface could solve that problem. In addition, a floating surface increases with the sea. Scarcity of space, energy and water. Where you have an abundance of that? On the sea, which covers 70 percent of the earth's surface.

I had looked at atlas maps of various major cities along the coast and clapped doubly sea. So you get a perfect interplay: the surplus CO2 and nutrients from the industry on land use your water. Carbon (C) you can use for example in algae cultivation, which forms a basis for fish farming and biofuel. Oxygen (O2) is in the air again. Energy wake you up with sun, water and wind. Eventually a circular system and prevent depletion of resources as happens in the country.

Materials were tested (polystyrene concrete floats fine) estimated maximum building heights (up to fifteen floors can withstand a hurricane), made breakwaters (you do not get seasick and wave currents can generate energy), calculated Areas (a click system works best) and international delegations convinced of the possibilities (in New Orleans and Hong Kong they were very enthusiastic).The Count speaks of a blue revolution in water to make the transition from hunting and gathering to organized food production and urban development.

A floating city is not a blueprint. The whole point is that each location looks at how you can build adaptive. So you save a lot of expenses and you can expand each coastal city driving, also in Asia and Africa. Cities such as Hong Kong, Jakarta and Lagos are almost about to explode, so I see the best opportunities to start internationally.”  

 

 

 

                                                                                                                         10  https://www.oneworld.nl/water/klimaat-toekomst/kunnen-we-wonen-op-zee

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                                                                                                                         Presentation  from  Frits  Schoute  and  Rutger  de  Graaf  

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Conclusion: The Design When  we  analyze  that  the  reason  why  there  is  not  allot  of  construction  underwater  is  that  most  of  them  can't  afford  it,  it's  too  expensive  especially  if  you  want  to  make  it  in  depths  of  the  water.  The  deeper  you  go  the  thicker  the  material  or  the  wall  should  be  and  another  thing  is  that  you  have  to  make  sure  that  the  air  composition  needs  to  sustain  the  people  while  underwater  depends  upon  the  depth.  The  current  habitats  use  compressors  to  constantly  push  fresh  air  from  the  surface  down  tubes  to  the  habitat.  There  are  different  type  of  air  that  we  need  when  we  are  underwater  that's  another  reason  that  it  can  cost  more  to  maintain  a  breathable  air  for  the  people.  

We  concluded  that  we  are  going  to  design  a  concept  of  different  floating  houses  and  buildings  that  gathered  in  our  research  to  make  an  floating  city.  We  wanted  to  use  a  fundament  with  the  form  of  the  triangle  of  the  Floating  school  in  Nigeria.  Since  a  triangle  is  a  strong  form  and  making  it  from  concrete  with  reinforcements,  the  body  of  the  construction  would  be  suitable  and  stable  for  our  floating  city.  For  the  exterior  of  the  buildings  we  would  want  to  add  a  lot  of  plants,  threes  and  even  polyester  fibers  and  titanium  dioxide  which  can  break  down  atmospheric  pollution  under  the  influence  of  sunlight  so  the  people  have  less  trouble  with  air  pollution.  We  would  like  to  use  Acrylic  glass  for  the  windows.  It's  easy  to  work  with,  easy  to  bend,  easy  to  cut  in  different  forms  and  it  can  withstand  high  pressure  of  water.  To  make  use  of  the  water  we  wanted  to  make  a  net  around  the  construction  that  have  a  multifunctional  purpose.  With  the  net  we  can  minimize  the  sea  current  so  we  can  prevent  less  damage  to  the  construction,  we  can  use  the  water  to  purify  it  and  make  drink  water  out  of  it  and  by  using  the  current  of  the  water  to  make  energy  with  simple  recycled  bolls  that  are  connected  to  each  other.  The  only  supply  that  the  human  being  needs  at  sea  from  land  is  CO2  to  make  life  on  water  self-­‐suffiency.  Last  of  all  the  design  will  consist  of  several  small  parts  (modular)  that  can  be  attached  to  each  other.  This  will  make  the  ‘part  of  the  city’  moveable  and  easier  to  repair  when  it’s  damaged.  The  connection  between  these  compartments  can  even  be  uses  to  create  public  transport.      

If  we  connect  the  design  with  the  economic,  social  and  environmental  aspects  there  are  so  many  advantages.  There  will  be  less  pollution  by  the  sustainable  way  of  generating  power,  which  is  by  water,  wind  and  sun  and  because  of  the  purification  of  the  water  we  can  re-­‐use  the  water  (environmental).  The  self-­‐suffiency  provides  cast  saving  and  may  even  be  profitably  if  you  trade  with  land.  We  can  even  satisfy  the  same  standards  of  life  and  produce  the  same  on  1/50    of  a  field  that  you  would  need  on  land  because  of  the  sustainable  methods  that  we  would  use  (economical).  In  the  end  we  can  say  that  life  on  water  seems  to  be  a  luxurious  life  while  the  methods  that  will  be  used  create  a  high  quality  life  (social).    

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Other sources Floating Pavilion http://www.bouwendnederland.nl/nieuws/2127652/nederland-laat-kansen-voor-bouwen-op-water-onbenut Building on water http://www.npo.nl/tegenlicht/15-04-2013/VPWON_1185925 http://www.janrotmans.nl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaa http://thecoolhunter.net/sea-underwater-restaurant-anantara-kihavah-maldives/