What can be more suiting than living in a
city that floats? Probably nothing. Our world is on the lane of technology and
day after day we are graced with new and new products of technological advancement the
latest of which is the floating city initiative. With the first prototype unveiled last year,
Saudi Arabia has taken a bigger step towards making the concept a reality with their £6.8B
floating turtle city. What's this project about and what does it
seem to cover? Let's find out in this video. THE FLOATING TURTLE CITY It has been suggested that the huge yacht
Pangeos, which has the form of a turtle, be built in Saudi Arabia. The proposal, if realized, would result in
the largest marine vessel ever built—basically, a huge floating city. The term Pangeos was sourced from Pangaea,
a supercontinent that existed around 200 million years ago. The Lazzarini Design Studio created and put
out the concept. The firm, which is located in Rome, uses 3D
technology to depict designs and concepts. Pangeos' planned dimensions are very enormous. The vessel would be the biggest thing ever
built if it were built. The Seawise Giant, built by the Japanese company
Sumitomo Heavy Industries, was the largest sea vessel ever built. It was 458.45 meters long. The current world's largest yacht is the German-made
Azzam, which measures 180.61 meters in length. Both of these titans would be dwarfed by the
Pangeos. Its projected measurements are 610 meters
wide and 550 meters long. The enormous ship will serve as a floating
city, having adequate room for public places like parks, retail malls, and hotels. According to Lazzarini, Pangeos can hold 60,000
people in addition to an undefined number of crew and personnel. There would be enough for 69 apartments and
19 villas on each side wing of Pangeos. On the rooftop shell, 72 terraces will be
offered. Some will overlook the central port area of
the ship, while others will offer sea views. In contrast to a typical cruise ship or yacht,
the Pangeos would be the main attraction. The Pangeos is anticipated to have a peak
speed of only five knots (5.7 miles per hour/9.2 kilometers per hour), propelled by nine 16,800
horsepower HTS engines. The ship's leisurely, steady pace makes sense
considering its enormous weight. Visitors may choose between using a different
maritime vessel or an airplane to go from the Pangeos to other areas. On board, a port for other vessels will be
built, and an "upper shell region" will provide access for flying objects. The bows start at the port's main plaza and
stretch through a large terraced villa before leading to individual residences, structures,
and rooftop terraces. The design team's basement has 30,000 cells
or cluster compartments and offers an unsinkable floating solution that is intended to be mostly
constructed in steel. Pangeos is a planned ship for Saudi Arabia,
but due to its almost limitless supply of renewable energy, it is intended to cruise
nonstop around the globe. Unsurprisingly, it won't be inexpensive to
construct a huge floating metropolis. According to Lazzarini, the development of
Pangeos will need an expenditure of $8 billion. In order to raise money, there is an NFT crowdfunding
project. Cryptocurrency may be used by backers to purchase
virtual space on Pangeos inside the metaverse. Construction, according to Lazzarini, would
take eight years. Finding a suitable location big enough for
such a massive building project is difficult enough. Designers have chosen a site near King Abdullah
Port as a potential location for the mega-project, pending approval from the Saudi Arabian government. To start construction, a seabed area of around
one square kilometer would need to be dredged. Water levels would be managed at the building
site using a circular dam. Pangeos is still very much in the conceptual
stage right now. However, the futuristic floating city's development
will someday start in Saudi Arabia. BUSAN OCEANIX Oceanix Busan, the first floating city prototype
in the world, has been visualized. Off the coast of South Korea, the goal is
to build a community that can accommodate increasing sea levels. According to Rose Dykins
UN-Habitat, the Busan Metropolitan city of the Republic of Korea, and blue tech design
firm Oceanix have shown new drawings of a future sustainable floating city. Furthermore, it will soon become a reality
when development gets underway next year. What is the purpose? With the climate catastrophe and significant
land limitations in coastal towns, Oceanix Busan aims to provide a ground-breaking solution. Two out of every five people on the planet
live within 100 kilometers of a coastline, and 90% of megacities are at risk from sea
level rise, which may result in billion-dollar flood damage to infrastructure and the eviction
of millions of climate refugees. Residents are compelled to migrate closer
to the sea in places with fast population growth where there is limited opportunity
for expansion, raising housing prices to perilous levels and displacing people with the lowest
incomes. Cities on water might aid in our adaptation. Philipp Hofmann, CEO of Oceanix, said: “Today
is a pivotal milestone for all coastal cities and island nations on the frontlines of climate
change. We are on track to deliver Oceanix Busan and
demonstrate that floating infrastructure can create new land for coastal cities looking
for sustainable ways to expand onto the ocean, while adapting to sea level rise.” The world's top designers, engineers, and
sustainability specialists collaborated to create the flood-proof prototype under the
direction of New York-based Oceanix. The principal designers of Oceanix Busan,
which was announced at the Second UN Roundtable on Sustainable Floating Cities, were the BIG-Bjarke
Ingels Group and SAMOO (owned by Samsung). The agreement to construct the prototype with
a host city was formed during the first Roundtable in 2019, and Busan was agreed to serve as
that city in 2021. Busan was a logical place to use for the deployment
of the floating city prototype due to its position on the southeast coast of South Korea,
its maritime culture, and its well-established marine engineering sector. Busan's mayor, Park Heong-joon, has lofty
plans to make Busan a smart, eco-friendly city and to submit a proposal to host the
World Expo in 2030. In response to sea level rise and its disastrous
effects on coastal towns, he remarked, "We joined forces with UN-Habitat and Oceanix
to be the first to prototype and scale this bold notion." The executive director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah
Mohd Sharif, remarked during the event: "We cannot handle today's challenges with yesterday's
tools. We must come up with creative answers to the
world's problems. However, let's be inclusive and fair in our
pursuit of innovation and make sure we don't leave anybody or any location behind. Oceanix Busan, the first sustainable floating
town prototype in the world, is made up of 15.5 acres of linked platforms that can house
12,000 residents. With 30,000 to 40,000 sqm of mixed-used area
per platform, each community is created to fulfill a distinct function, whether it be
homes, research centers, or eco-friendly accommodation. The link-span bridges that connect the floating
platforms to the ground frame the protected blue lagoon of floating performance, art,
and leisure venues. The low-rise structures feature rounded edges
and terraces for living inside and outdoors, and they connect to Oceanix Busan's network
of energetic public areas. The goal is for Oceanix Busan to naturally
change and adapt throughout time in response to Busan's demands. It has the capacity to grow from a neighborhood
of 12,000 inhabitants and guests to house more than 100,000 people. The prototype floating city relies on six
interconnected systems to run smoothly: closed-loop water systems, closed-loop food systems, net-zero
energy systems, innovative transportation, and coastal habitat regeneration. 100% of the city's energy will be produced
by these interconnected systems through rooftop and floating photovoltaic panels. Each neighborhood will also provide innovative
urban agriculture, treat and replenish its own water supplies, conserve and recycle resources,
and have outposts and greenhouses on the floating platforms. A template for resilient and sustainable communities,
according to BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group founder and creative director Bjarke Ingels, will
be Oceanix's modular marine city. Oceanix Busan, our first example of this new
type of waterborne urbanism, will transfer the city's distinctive personality and culture
from the land to the surrounding waters. We think Oceanix's floating platforms may
be produced in large quantities to act as the building blocks of future resilient settlements
in the most vulnerable coastal regions on the front lines of climate change. SUSTAINABILITY IS BUILT INTO FLOATING CITY
DESIGN Sustainability is yet another crucial aspect
of the design. To guarantee that the floating city reuses
and wastes as little as possible, the OCEANIX Busan features six integrated systems that
are focused on energy, food, water, trash, transportation, and coastal habitat regeneration. Photovoltaic panels on rooftops and floating
structures will produce all of the city's operating energy requirements. Each community will have its own water treatment
and replenishment system, resource reduction and recycling measures, and food production
in urban farms. OVERLOOKING THE FUTURE The proposal to build a floating metropolis
is not limited to Busan. The carbon-neutral Floating Office Rotterdam,
which can float with rising sea levels, was launched by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
in the Dutch port in September 2021. Maldives Floating City construction is also
expected to get underway this year. With more than 80% of its land area at or
below one meter above sea level, the archipelago in the Indian Ocean is one of the most climatically
susceptible countries. While floating towns and offices are one way
to mitigate the effects of climate change on coastal communities, the ocean still faces
a number of other problems that need immediate attention. And with that we come to the end of this episode. Did you like what you just watched? Then like the video and subscribe to our channel. See you again in the next one.
