Three dimensions of sustainability and floating architecture

Abstract

This paper focuses on the sustainability of floating architecture. Compared to usual buildings on land, floating buildings on water have great advantages in terms of sustainability. Sustainability in architecture has primarily dealt with physical aspects, but discussions of sustainability need to be extended to non-physical aspects because buildings are to be used by people with various purposes and meanings. Sustainability of floating architecture in three dimensions can be summarised as durability to a rise in water level, long term usage due to movability and relocation, use of local material, and various applications of renewable energy sources in the environmental dimension; economic advantages due to prefabrication and modular construction, and economic efficiency due to high utilisation rate through global mobility in the economic dimension; and residents' psychological comfort, strengthened security against crime, and high sense of community in the social dimension.