This week’s lesson sparked my interested, while learning about smart building. One thing in particular was floating communities. I have learned about floating homes in another earth related class, and it was fascinating to me. I found a CNN article about Rotterdam, which is Europe’s largest port. One of the big highlights of this article was that 90% of the city is below sea level and at high risk for flooding. Rotterdam plans to become the most sustainable port city in the world, and there have been five sustainable initiatives planned for this port city.
One of the initiatives would be floating homes. “To cope with rising sea levels, Rotterdam plans to build floating urband districts for 13,000 climate proof floating homes by 2040—of which 1,200 would be built on top of water” (Soffel & Maguder, 2013). The structures would be almost entirely self sufficient due to the solar power heating and air conditioning. They will be built with a special plastic material that is 100 times lighter than glass.
Another initiative would be what they would call “water plazas”. Because the city is almost entirely below sea level to combat the heavy rainfall, they are designing these water plazas to serve as the perfect solution for holding the excess water, to take the pressure off the sewage system. “When the city’s water system has enough capacity, the rainwater in the plaza can be diverted to the nearest open water” (Soffel & Maguder, 2013).
Those two initiatives were the most interesting to me. Both of them would help rising sea levels and flooding, for this coastal port city. It shows new ideas for smart building, and highlights the importance of becoming a more sustainable city for our environment.
Jeffery Soffel, Natasha Maguder, . (n.d.). Can Rotterdam become the world’s most sustainable port city? Retrieved July 15, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/world/europe/can-rotterdam-become-the-sustainable/index.html
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