Coastal cities bet on floating neighbourhoods
From the North Sea to the Pacific, planners are building homes, parks and schools that rise with the tide. We visited the first district where 600 people already live on the water.
At first light the pavements of the new harbour district move, very slightly. Nobody seems to notice. The 140 homes, a primary school and a small park here are built on concrete hulls anchored to steel posts, and they rise and fall with the water by up to two metres a year.
Planners in at least eleven coastal cities are now studying the district as rising seas make traditional flood defences more expensive every decade. Building on the water, they argue, is cheaper than holding it back.
What it costs to float
A floating home costs roughly 15% more to build than a comparable house on land, according to the city's own figures. But the district needed no new sea wall, and insurers have priced its flood risk at close to zero.
We stopped asking how to keep the water out and started asking how to live with it.
District planning lead
Critics warn that floating districts could become enclaves for the wealthy. The city has answered by reserving a third of the homes for social housing, a rule other cities are now copying.