Not only was this project planned to withstand sea level rises up to over a 100-year period but this project was also designed to stimulate coral growth with artificial coral banks.
Condé Nast Traveller
One of the biggest climate challenges that the Maldives has always faced as a low-lying nation was the rising sea levels. As a country comprising of low-lying islands, the rising sea levels posed a major threat to the nation, and with more developments and increased tourism in the country, it appears that the environmental issues that the Maldives faced got even worse.
While the Maldives is known globally as one of the most romantic get-away that is on every single person’s bucket list of places to visit, in addition to climate change there is one other major issue that the locals of the country face: lack of land and a rapidly worsening housing crisis.
With a majority of the population migrating to the capital city Male’ or the nearby land Hulhumale’ for better healthcare and job opportunities, over the years land scarcity in Male’ has become a major issue. Everyone from Government offices to citizens have resorted to paying rent prices that go higher by each year as the demand for housing keeps increasing. Even though the Maldivian Government has put in the effort to carry out major housing projects to facilitate affordable housing in an attempt to decrease the demand and lower the rents, it appears that with the increasing number of migrants to Male’ City, the housing projects are not enough to help with the housing crisis.
In 2010, in an attempt to lower the housing crisis as well as find a long-term solution to the sinking paradise, Maldives, an idea was formulated between Dutch-Docklands and the Maldivian Government to build floating cities.
Not only was this project planned to withstand sea level rises upto over a 100-year period, but this project was also designed to stimulate coral growth with artificial coral banks, making this project an extremely innovative one that qualified Waterstudio for the Best Futura Project at the 2022 MIPIM Awards.
This USD 1 billion project involved the construction of 5,000 houses in a 200-hectare lagoon in Aarah. This project, however, takes on more of an integrated tourist model, meaning instead of just consisting of houses, the floating island will also have hotels, shops and restaurants.
However, following the change in the presidential term after the agreement for this project was signed, there were major delays in the project. Finally, in 2021, the agreement for the ‘floating island’ project was signed for the second time with mock-ups to be shown by Ramadan of 2022. By this time, the floating city project was delayed for so long that people stopped believing that the project was even real. It was one of those topics that would pop up on international headlines, but something Maldivians never believed would come true.
Ramadan of 2022 went by with no mock-ups as the project faced delays yet again as there were delays on the Government’s side when it came to granting requisite permissions as well as the lack of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
And while nobody thought it would happen, after over a decade-long wait, there are finally some updates to show on this project.
With mock-up pictures for the floating city now circulating on Twitter, after the long wait, the mock-up can finally be spotted from Hulhumale lagoon. While a new revelation date has been set yet again, the bright green and yellow colour of the mock-up that has been set up in the Hulhumale’ lagoon finally puts some real perspective on this project after years of talking about a floating city in the Maldives.
The project completion has been set for five years, and people are waiting to finally discover a real glimpse into this innovative floating island project. If all goes according to plan, this floating island project would be a major step towards accomplishing futuristic goals for the Maldives, while providing a possible solution to the increasing climate and land scarcity problems in the country as well.
