This week on Dezeen, the Maldives revealed its plans to create the “world’s first true floating island city” with 5,000 homes that will rise with the sea.
Designed in response to the threat of rising sea levels caused by climate change, the Maldives Floating City will be composed of a series of structures that float in a coral-like formation.
The future of car design was in the spotlight this week as Dutch startup Lightyear unveiled Lightyear 0, an electric vehicle powered by solar panels on its roof, bonnet and boot.
In an interview with Dezeen, Hyundai vice president Simon Loasby said that the circularity of mass-market cars is “closer than we think”.
In architecture news, Heatherwick Studio completed a sculptural glasshouse that unfolds into a crown-like form in the gardens of the Woolbeding Estate in England.
The studio also shared a video of the structure, named Glasshouse, which offers a glimpse of it opening.
Other buildings that reached completion this week included the Ombú offices that Foster + Partners created in old gas plant in Madrid and BIG’s Corten extension to the Refugee Museum of Denmark.
UK architecture studio Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners hit the headlines when it announced its rebrand as RSHP following the death of its founder Richard Rogers late last year.
It was also reported that the studio is developing plans to transform its seminal Lloyd’s building into a hotel, admist claims that its current occupant Lloyd’s of London is considering leaving. RSHP declined to comment on the reports.
The futures of two other notable buildings were also in the spotlight, with Google rumoured to be buying the postmodern James R Thompson Center by Helmut Jahn and Adjaye Associates appointed to revamp Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum.
Adjaye Associates’ overhaul would include the conversion of the museum’s existing Dr Martin Luther King Jr building into a new entrance and the introduction of various new facilities.
Projects enjoyed by readers this week include a concrete gallery containing a Richard Serra artwork, a Japanese house modelled on a fish tank and a low-lying coastal house in California.
Our lookbooks this week showcased interiors with textured cork-covered walls and homes with impressive shutters and louvres.
This week on Dezeen
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The post This week the Maldives unveiled a floating island city appeared first on Dezeen.