MY TRAN STUDIO

   Floating structures are always seen as a future vision, though they have existed since the first human settlements in African, European, Southeast Asian, and North American countries. During the 1950s, along with walking building evolution and utopia architecture, proposals for floating buildings and cities from Japan and Europe opened many opportunities and potential for new building typology. Still, none of them was feasible enough to be built. My proposed idea for this project is to develop a simple floating module that everyone can build quickly. Many modules together can form a floating platform to use as a floating foundation for residents’ homes above. The floating platform will help people settle in the water to create a community. A proposed loop ring transportation is developed as my floating city’s spine to connect these communities into a city. I chose my site three miles south of Sand Island, a heart of water transportation and industrial hub in Honolulu, to start this plan. 

   Kaiwi Floating City includes a system of three-loop rings, mainly used for transportation and energy generation, and it develops in four phases in the next twenty years. The first phase is that the government will play an essential role in constructing a prototype of two-loop rings to attract investors and developers into this new typology while making it as a new tourist attraction to generate income for the floating structure. The second phase will be manufacturing the third loop ring connecting to the future metro line from the Sand Island station. The third phase is to allow businesses and small communities to settle in. The last step focuses on the city and service amenities to enhance the living quality for the residents. The city center is located along with the loop rings while the residential areas and small retail spread outward from the main transportation route. This allows the city to expand freely within each loop.