An industrial port in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, is home to forty of the most unusual cows in the world. They look like normal cows, and their daily activities are what we might expect: They graze in a meadow, sleep in stables, and produce milk a few times a day.
The crucial difference? They live their lives floating on the water.
The Floating Farm is a living experiment that was first envisioned by Dutch engineer Peter van Wingerden in 2012 after he saw the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York City. The storm destroyed critical infrastructures, cost an estimated $19 billion in damages, and directly and indirectly caused 52 deaths.
In the days and weeks following the hurricane, another problem emerged: Food production and distribution systems were decimated. That’s when van Wingerden came up with a radical question: Would it be possible to engineer critical infrastructures that could avoid the worst impacts of storms by floating on rising floodwaters?
Floating: A Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation?
Today, van Wingerden’s question has become even more relevant. As climate change accelerates, it will impact future in countless ways. For coastal countries and cities, warming waters are an existential threat. Storms become stronger and more frequent, causing dangerous storm surges. At the same time, melting icebergs increase global sea levels.
In the Netherlands, a country that is already largely under sea level, rivers add another dimension to the problem: the ocean advances, while the Rhine river empties water from five other countries into the sea. A complex network of dikes, pumps, and storm surge barriers protects millions of people every day, but the future remains uncertain.
In response to this threat, architects, designers, and engineers like van Wingerden have come up with innovative solutions. Some of those involve building homes, office buildings–and yes, even farms–not on land, but on the water. For these visionaries, a floating future could be the answer to living amidst climate change.
The Floating Farm
The forty cows on the Floating Farm live on a large buoyant structure with multiple levels. Up top: the stables, with a milking station and places to sleep and eat. The middle level holds machines where milk is purified and manure is processed. Below that, in the darkness of the basement, wheels of cheese age in neat rows.
In order to commit to the vision of the farm as a food source that could survive floods, the founders of the project knew that floating was only the first step. The farm also needed to be able to withstand the impacts of storms or sea level rise on water, power, and waste management systems.
“We want to be circular; we want to purify our water with our own energy,” Chief Innovation and Education Officer Leo van Gelder said.
Today, they can say that they’ve achieved these goals.
Desalination machines pump salt water from the port and create fresh water for the farm. All of the power comes from floating solar panels. Even the waste from cows is recycled. Small robots scoop up the cows’ manure and urine. The urine is purified and used to water herbs and vegetables. However, only some of the manure is compacted and used as fertilizer.
Scientists partnering with the farm are also experimenting with manure to create materials like bricks and plastics. In this way, the farm is more than just a dairy producer; it is a living lab, collaborating with researchers to find new solutions to important problems.
The Floating Farm: Misconceptions
Most people are excited about the farm, but there are still some common misconceptions about the project. Workers say that the biggest concerns from the public have surrounded the welfare of the animals.
According to van Gelder, the animals actually live better lives on the Floating Farm than they might elsewhere. “We have spoken with experts in agriculture at universities in the Netherlands, and they say we have enough space,” he said. “And,” he added, “the cows can go outside.”
The cows have more autonomy than people might expect; they are free to go to a meadow on the shore by walking down a metal ramp, crossing high above the water.
The Floating Farm has been a success. Restaurants, locals, and other organizations purchase the farm’s range of high-quality dairy products, and students and visitors often take tours to learn more about sustainable food production. What’s next? They hope to expand, adding another farm for vegetables and eggs.
Schoonschip: A Floating Neighborhood
Once floating was established as a possibility, the logical next step was to figure out if people could live in floating houses – and a floating neighborhood in Amsterdam has already been pushing the boundaries of sustainable living.
Completed in 2020, Schoonschip is a neighborhood located in a canal in northern Amsterdam. Each house is free to rise and fall with the tide, kept in place by rings that slide along poles driven into the canal floor. There, residents of 46 households live, work, gather, and raise their children.
The neighborhood is efficient and eco-friendly. The houses often have large green roofs and are constructed with sustainable materials. Like the Floating Farm, most of the power comes from solar panels.
Residents who live in Schoonschip feel a strong sense of community and pride in their neighborhood. They explained that each household worked with architects to design their own residence, which led to the wide variety of building styles represented in the neighborhood. There are also communal meeting spaces where everyone gathers. They often meet to discuss ongoing projects and decisions that must be made as a group.
What about cities?
So, a floating farm exists. Floating solar panels and windmills have been operating for years. Most importantly, there are two thriving floating neighborhoods (there’s also a smaller community like Schoonship in Rotterdam).
Despite the success of these projects, they’re still an anomaly in the Netherlands. Outside of the Netherlands, they’re almost unheard of.
Floating comes with clear benefits. Solar power brings lower utility bills. Proximity to water brings nice views and less oppressive heat in the summer. Additionally, the cost of building floating homes isn’t as expensive as one might think and is often less than traditional housing. Add in the ability to survive storms and sea level rise, and the pressure of housing crises around the world, and one might think that people everywhere would be ready to invest in their own floating projects.
However, there is a lack of interest. In order for these solutions to be an effective strategy for mitigating climate threats, investors and the general public need enough confidence to buy in.
That’s where the Floating Future research project comes in. With the support of over 40 organizations, 10 pHd projects are assessing the different crucial considerations in three areas: governance, technology, and ecology. Together, they are hoping to create feasible and actionable plans for larger communities or cities that could float offshore.
Envisioning a new future.
Time and time again, these experts have shown that we have the technological capabilities to create incredible projects and solutions for climate change. What’s really needed is the vision and creativity to think of novel ideas.
What could a floating future look like?
Here’s what imagination has come up with:
Cities offshore could run on solar and wind power. People could create modular designs, where different pieces fit together but can be rearranged. Floating farms could provide food, and water could be purified by desalination (if current technologies are improved).
In the immediate future, these cities could be integrated with coastal areas on land. If the worst climate scenario occurs and coastal areas become completely inundated with water, submerging houses, roads, and schools, these floating cities could be islands of refuge and a new home for millions.
