The partly public platform will be a fresh new destination for New Yorkers and its visitors for sports and leisure, communication, learning, and so much more.
It’s expected to open sometime around 2022.
Since our population increases but the land doesn’t, populated cities need to get creative on expanding to fit this growing number of people and their needs. As a solution, many coastal cities are resorting to floating architecture. For example, Penang is building a 4,500-acre floating sustainable city; the Copenhagen Harbor in Denmark will soon have a cluster of floating island parks; Qatar is considering a rotating floating hotel, and Blue Estate Island is developing a floating island city in the Caribbean Sea.
Meanwhile, many other miscellaneous smaller projects are in the works by architects and energy companies. For example, Agnieszka Białek’s water-lily-inspired floating offices; Studiomobile and PNAT’s floating greenhouses; and Seaborg Technologies’ floating nuclear reactors.
Now Manhattan, the most populated of the five New York City boroughs, will join the action with a floating, mobile campus called We The Planet Campus (WTP) designed by 3deluxe and commissioned by the New York-based organization #WeThePlanet. The green platform will be 100% self-sufficient and anchored off the Manhattan shoreline.
WTP is designed to be an inspirational structure for convening international summits, hosting workshops, and providing educational programs focused on transforming our world for the better. It symbolizes forward-looking opportunities for people-friendly architecture in harmony with nature, rather than today’s commonly parasitic nature of the situation.
Dieter Brell, Creative Director of 3deluxe, said:
After the shock of the pandemic and the social polarization of recent years, there is a longing for positive change. It is time for architecture and urbanism to take a more ambitious approach to humanize our living environment.
Innovative new architectural structures could come into being, of the kind that has 50% nature-oriented biotopes integrated into them. As a result, the quality of life in the cities would be enormously improved in every respect: A better air quality, a more pleasant inner-city climate which would heat up less and the fact that it would suddenly be possible to enjoy the experience of something unfamiliar in such environments – nature.
The WTP Campus is a communicative platform to promote the protection of all life on land and in the sea while advancing the frontiers of sustainable design. Seminars will address topics like climate change, human longevity and planetary flourishing, equal opportunities, and social justice. It aims to become an inspiring example for future life, working environments, and communicative living.
The natural elements surrounding the complex (wind, water, sun) inspired the fluid, organic form of the island. In addition, half of the surface area features floating marshland biotopes designed to give back to nature as much as it takes by generating its own drinking water and energy. In addition, the biotopes (consisting of marshland meadows and thatched and green roofs) provide living space for a diversified animal and plant world.
The building materials consist of natural materials like clay, wood, reeds, bioplastics, and recycled materials. Also, the latest green technologies will be used for air cleansing and sequestering C02 like algae bioreactors. In addition, renewable energy will come from photovoltaics, wind turbines, and marine (tidal) power plants under the platform.