What is Floating Building? : 7 Pros and Cons of Floating Buildings

A floating building is a structure designed with a floatation system at its base and is transported to the chosen location with the aid of ships.

✔ Floating building works based on the Archimedes Principle. 

✔ Rapid melting of icebergs, glaciers, and ice at the poles; sea-level worldwide is increasing rapidly. This is causing the drowning of the many islands and cities lying on the sea bank.

Palm Jumeirah (UAE), New York City (USA), and the Maldives are examples of places predicted to suffer from drowning due to rising sea levels.

✔ Floating buildings may be the best solution to tackle the problem of drowning.

And from an architectural and environmental point of view, floating buildings are best to construct.

✔ Some examples of floating buildings are:

a. Makoko Floating School

b. Jellyfish Barge

c. Hassle harbour bath

Everything on this planet has pros and cons; we will discuss the pros and cons of floating buildings in this article.

  1. Pros and Cons of Floating Buildings  

Floating buildings do not need soil to transmit dead and live structure loads.

✔ A floating building is based on the principle of buoyancy suggested by Archimedes.

✔ The structure’s base should be developed to assist in floating and transferring the dead and live loads of the structure to water with a displacement of water which makes a buoyant force to carry building loads.

The pros and cons of floating buildings are listed below.

  a. Pros of Floating Buildings  

The pros of the floating buildings are as follows:

a. Easy & Cheap to Transport

✔ Transporting floating buildings from one place of the water body to another is relatively easy and cheap.

b. Fast Construction

✔ Most parts of the floating buildings are constructed with steel, wood, and prefabricated technologies.

✔ This boosts the speed of construction.

✔ It takes only half the time to build floating buildings compared to conventional ones.

c. Cost Saving

✔ Elimination of different components and parts like foundations results in the reduction of construction costs.

✔ It is 20 to 30 % cheaper to build floating buildings than conventional ones.

d. Decrease in Deforestation

✔ As water space is used in place of land, this indirectly decreases the rate of deforestation.

e. Less Disturbance in Ecosystem

✔ Floating buildings indirectly play roles in preserving forests and protecting animals, birds, etc.

✔ This helps to maintain the proper ecological cycle.

f. Good Aesthetic Appearance

✔ The aesthetic appearance of floating buildings is very pleasing compared to traditional buildings.

g. Safe from Earthquakes

✔ Water under the floating buildings acts as a seismic damper, so these buildings are safe from earthquakes. ( But the risk from Tsunamis is high)

  b. Cons of Floating Buildings  

The Cons of the floating buildings are as follows:

a. Risky at a location where climate changes rapidly

✔ Constructing floating buildings at locations where climate changes rapidly is not suitable.

✔ Due to climate changes, the depth of water bodies may increase or decrease drastically, leading to huge problems.

b. Increase in maintenance

✔ Maintenance requirement in floating buildings is relatively high compared to conventional ones.

✔ Maintenance work should be mainly carried out before the rainy season.

c. Less service life

✔ Compared to buildings on land, the life of floating buildings is relatively minor.

d. High risk of water pollution

✔ The problem of water pollution is the main con of floating buildings as wastes are directly disposed of in water bodies.

e. High risk from Tsunamis

✔ High waves and tsunamis are one of the big problems for floating buildings.

f. Requirement of Skill Manpower

✔ It is quite hard to maintain the centre of gravity and buoyancy. So skilled workforce is required to construct floating buildings.

g. Limitation in Height

✔ The height of floating buildings is limited to tackle problems such as wind force, water force, the centre of gravity, buoyancy, etc.

✔ High height may result in the overturning of the building.