Floating Economies

Floating Infrastructure is the New Layer of Coastal City Development. By the year 2050, the population of the cities is projected to cross 70% of the world population. Coastal cities such as Oslo, Singapore and Dubai, and others, are becoming more and more crowded, and now face a supply crisis.

Growth doesn’t stop at landfills. Urban development now accommodates floating infrastructure as the next tier of expansion. The Floating Institute believes it is proof of the Floating Economy moving to the next level, turning theory into every day floating practice.

Growth on water is no longer a novelty, but rather a proven extension of urban development - and cities are being built with that principle in mind. Investors, developers, and governments from all over the world are now treating floating infrastructure as a city-building advancement.

The shortage of student housing in Europe, lack of affordable housing in North America, and the workforce housing shortage in Asia all signal one important growth opportunity - living on water. The platforms are modular and can be used to expand floating cities quickly and at scale without land.

Norway is one of the most illustrative examples. Student housing deficits with the region including Oslo and Bergen stand at 12,000 with 2,000 and 700 respectively. As a polyfunctional approach to this problem, floating homes for students are being promoted. This is not an entirely new idea, either. Floating student housing projects such as the Uban Rigger have already been established in other countries, helping to prove out the model.

Seaborne, one of the proponents of this idea, illustrates the amalgamation of local knowledge, technical design, and global vision to anchor coastal development. Their feasibility studies conducted within the fjords that floating infrastructure offshore can float and work within the local context.

Seaborne’s portfolio includes a floating hotel for which all the approvals are given in Norway which allows the investors as well as the regulators to trust that floating ventures are actionable and can be dome as fast as possible.

These planned offshore structures are meant to demonstrate how modular platforms can provide housing with no land reclamation and minimal strain on urban infrastructure. They can be readily adopted as a prototype for floating towns that will provide residents with a safe, practical, and low-cost accommodation, serving as self-sufficient urban experiments. They will reaffirm that modern cities can incorporate floating structures while adhering to eco-friendly and societal urban development principles.

Years of first-hand experience lie behind every project. Roar “Sam” Nilsen has 21 years of boat building and marina development, combining Norwegian craft and technical innovation.

Together, this leadership illustrates that social vision and market insight are essential in addition to engineering for advocating floating infrastructures.

Within the Floating Economy, many projects focus on the four pillars of Conservation: safeguarding ecosystems and reducing the pressure on land.

Within this frame, Seaborne's activities in Norway illustrate how people, platforms, and partnerships combine to build viable floating economies.

Collaboration in the sector is essential. Projects like those from Bluet Floating Solutions are exemplary Nordic engineering in modular floating platforms; local project leaders and cultural connectors modify them for market application. With well-established systems already in Europe, Bluet's association with Seaborne is a leap for cities, local governments, and investors.

It shows that floating student housing is far from just a dream; with partnership, it is a feasible and replicable project. When these partnerships are aligned, they enable cities to stop thinking of floating projects as standalone test beds, and start treating them like scalable, repeatable solutions.

Broad adoption comes easy when student housing in Norway is the starting point. Floating logistics, tourism districts, and cultural hubs are being investigated all over the world. For cities struggling with land and urban sprawl, water is no longer the edge, it is becoming the foundation of expansion. The floating student homes under development in Oslo and Bergen on the other hand, once constructed will prove to cities across the world that floating housing encompasses viability, scalability, and sustainability.

Norway is just the tipping point. There is more to learn beyond Norway. The learnings here would guide undertakings in Europe, Asia, and further afield. From cities with a dysfunctional housing market to areas that are poorly equipped to deal with rising water levels, floating solutions can address some of the most difficult problems of our time

Seaborne and similar firms are bridging the gap in the ecosystem by bringing together innovators, policymakers, the investment community, and the public to transform floating notions into real-world applications. The experience of partners across continents combined with the modular nature of the floating structures, is enabling the next level of urbanization to quickly become reality in the Floating Economy.

- TFI