Living on the ocean: A self-sufficient floating community in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP)
The project comes as a response to the UN Sustainable development goals, considering issues of climate change, sea-level rise, and urban densities in coastal areas. Plastic pollution can be both cause and result to some of these issues, therefore recycling the existing waste rather than producing new plastic is essential in approaching climate change. Our planet is faced with plenty of uncertainty, in my thesis project I explore and respond to these issues through a bold proposition: an offshore self-sufficient community that tackles plastic pollution and the imminent danger of sea-level rise to large coastal settlements.
Plas.ti’kos is the recycled plastic modular floating system that can support living offshore and is highly flexible, while the facility hosted on these floating modules permits for more plastic harvesting and processing in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to take place, and therefore produce more Plas.ti’kos systems.
The end product, recycled plastic floating devices will be used to continue developing the community, or to begin setting up a new recycling facility with adjacent living neighborhoods in another GPGP ‘hotspot’. The plastic harvested is used in either producing the shell of the modules (recyclable plastic) or ballast used to fill the shell (non-recyclable plastics).
For the community to properly function as a self-sufficient entity, living and leisure areas are also required. These have the potential to adapt to the area where they are located and could be built using locally sourced materials and techniques. The design proposes a solution to some of the biggest threats our planet has ever faced, allowing communities to relocate and providing new jobs in the waste recycling industry. Plas.ti’kos modular system is designed to grow and adapt organically over time into resilient communities and potentially, cities.
