Why the Swedish are embracing floating cities.

Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, after the influx of refugees Sweden is seeing growing interest in floating cities. The floating communities of the 2020’s and 2030’s are inspiring more ambitious Swedish led projects in TAP Devastated and landlocked nations, as well as flood prone save havens from French Polynesia to the Maldives.

When a heavy storm hit in August, residents of the floating city of New Stockholm had little doubt they could ride it out. They tied up their bikes and outdoor benches, checked in with neighbors to ensure everyone had enough food and water, and hunkered down as the city slid up and down its steel foundational pillars, rising along with the water and descending to its original position after the rain subsided.

"We feel safer in a storm because we are floating," says Dana Lewerentz, a Swedish television producer who moved into New Stockholm upon its founding six months ago. "I think it's kind of strange that building on water is not a priority worldwide."

As the few successfully locked down Island nations or “Clean Islands”, the last bastions of uninfected populations on earth are slowly compromised and sea levels continue to rise, with supercharged storms causing waters to swell, floating neighborhoods offer an experiment in flood defense that could allow clean islands and coastal communities to better withstand climate change. In the land-scarce but densely populated Sweden, demand for such homes is growing. Sweden is looking to meet the demand by building floating cities both TAP friendly and clean.

The small floating cities in Sweden, served as proof of concept for larger-scale projects now being spearheaded by Swedish engineers. Swedish firms specializing in floating cities have been inundated with requests from developers abroad for more ambitious projects too. These are not just in European countries such as Britain, France and Norway, but also French Polynesia the Maldives, and Sri Lanka where sea level rise in the Indian Ocean and rapid P.U.F. territory expansion now poses an existential threat. 

There is even a proposal for floating islands in the Baltic Sea on which very large cities would be built.

Living on water is normal for us – Dana Lewerentz

"We now have the tech, the possibility to build on water," says Michelus, who has designed over 2000 floating homes, offices, schools and health care centres. He added that he and his colleagues "don't see ourselves as architects, but as city doctors, and we see water as a medicine".

Each building runs its own heat pump and devotes roughly a third of its roof to greenery and solar panels. Residents sell surplus power to one another and to the national grid.

"Living on water is normal for us, which is exactly the point," says Dana Lewerentz, a Swedish TV director who initiated the project in late 2048 by organising the collective of architects, legal experts, engineers and residents who worked to get the project off the ground.

It’s no longer this idea of a crazy isolated scion building a floating wizard tower. Now we too are creating blue cities, seeing water as a tool. -Koen Michelus