Dutch architectural development firm Water Studio has proposed a series of floating apartments in a project called “New Water”. These homes are meant to ride upon the rising tide of water that is encroaching into living spaces. Named “The Citadel”, the housing units themselves are funky, vaguely letter-shaped constructions that bring to mind a set of carelessly scattered children’s toys.
The complex will feature 60 luxury apartments, and docks for boats, as well as garages for cars. The buildings will use 25% less energy than their land-bound counterparts, due to efficient water-cooling techniques. And don’t forget: with the rising global temperature and the eventual melting of the polar ice caps, The Citadel will be the perfect place to live when the worldwide water level rises.
But more importantly, the past few decades have seen a welcome trend in architecture, from the staid, traditional blocky style favored in office parks and tract housing to more free-flowing, organic designs, such as those displayed by famous names like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid. It seems that lately the key element is a designer’s ability to tap into the wellspring of creativity exhibited on a daily basis by children.
Sometimes, watching my son draw, it’s easy for me to want to try to guide his developing skills into more accurate renderings of real world objects — that’s how I started out when I used to be a professional artist. I wanted everything to faithfully represent reality. But I keep reminding myself that kids are best left to their own devices. They communicate with their emotions much more directly than we adults do, and in the long run, this communication can turn out to be the most important element of their creative lives. “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, Albert Einstein is quoted as saying. The wild shapes of your child’s doodling today might someday turn into the habitations of tomorrow. Let it go, and let it happen.
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