A new industry of floating infrastructure is emerging to help adapt to rising sea levels. There are two distinct approaches that are being put forth as possible solutions: retrofitting homes to be amphibious and building floating cities.
Amphibious homes can preserve the accessibility of the house and maintain the congenial front porch culture in places like Louisiana, said Elizabeth English, founder and director of The Buoyant Foundation Project.
English's design places a steel frame beneath a house, and then below that, in the crawl space, buoyancy elements. Her team then recommends adding elements to prevent lateral movement so the home will not float away while on the surface of floodwaters.She estimated that a contractor could do such a retrofit for about $20 to $30 per square foot, but cautioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency currently discourages this type of building practice.
Modern floating cities are the brainchild of architect Bjarke Ingels. He told CNBC he hopes his Oceanix City, which is currently slated to be built in the harbor near Busan, South Korea, will be "a city that is the most resilient city you can imagine, but at the same time, the most enjoyable city that you can imagine."
"We really hope that it will be a successful project and we would like to replicate it in other parts of the world," Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, told CNBC of the Oceanix development. She said the world must look more into adaptation and hopes that the project can help mitigate or even solve the problem of sea-level rise.
Would you live in a floating city or retrofit your home so it floats during floods? Watch the video above to learn more about what life could be like in these innovative climate change adaptations.
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Amphibious homes can preserve the accessibility of the house and maintain the congenial front porch culture in places like Louisiana, said Elizabeth English, founder and director of The Buoyant Foundation Project.
English's design places a steel frame beneath a house, and then below that, in the crawl space, buoyancy elements. Her team then recommends adding elements to prevent lateral movement so the home will not float away while on the surface of floodwaters.She estimated that a contractor could do such a retrofit for about $20 to $30 per square foot, but cautioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency currently discourages this type of building practice.
Modern floating cities are the brainchild of architect Bjarke Ingels. He told CNBC he hopes his Oceanix City, which is currently slated to be built in the harbor near Busan, South Korea, will be "a city that is the most resilient city you can imagine, but at the same time, the most enjoyable city that you can imagine."
"We really hope that it will be a successful project and we would like to replicate it in other parts of the world," Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, told CNBC of the Oceanix development. She said the world must look more into adaptation and hopes that the project can help mitigate or even solve the problem of sea-level rise.
Would you live in a floating city or retrofit your home so it floats during floods? Watch the video above to learn more about what life could be like in these innovative climate change adaptations.
» Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
» Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision
About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.
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Get the latest news: https://www.cnbc.com/
Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst We know, through history, that humans in many parts of the world have preferred to live at the coasts or beside the rivers. Water is life. Furthermore there are even now cultures which actually live in houses resting on rivers, those called palafittes or lake dwellings, since long ago. Maybe the future will see more people doing this, but using new building technologies which will afford populations to live and work in places where waters have raised, even more, living in areas where flooding happens a lot, houses which can float without disturbing the life of those living there. Climate change (in fact the new societies and communities in this paradigm shift we live now) need innovations, innovative technologies to respond to new challenges and new societies. Watch this to understand more.