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Floating Garden is a Man-Made Island Spa

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Dutch architect Anne Holtrop and the green tech award-winning Studio Noach envision building a Spa on water, for SpaWellness Amsterdam. The entire imitation island would be created from a substrate of waste polystyrene plastic, and vertical garden expert Patrick Blanc would then cover the substrate with what would be the largest hydroponic vegetation cover in the world.

No soil is needed to grow the vegetation within the specially receptive mesh, as long as there is a good supply of water, so water from the lake is pumped over the spa “building.” The artificial vegetation cover is calculated to help the structure reduce its energy costs 70%.

Green RexWall panels using recycled polystyrene cores form the “land” of these imitation islands, a completely new form of architecture. Each panel is made of recycled polystyrene hamburger clamshells, coffee cups and packing material. Kreuger calls it “the sustainable solution to packaging pollution.”

“EPS, or expanded polystyrene is one of the most tough waste materials on our planet. On average it takes up to 90 years to biodegrade a polystyrene coffee cup or hamburger shell. However, the product is easy to recycle. In RexwallTM it even serves the planet.” But they are also buoyant. This provides the substrate. These melted and reformed polystyrene substrates are strong enough that no cement, steel or bricks are needed.

The architectural exterior is in the form of natural “hills” and “valleys”. Inside the structures, the interior to some extent follows the form of the landscape outside, but the shape is tamed enough to be functional as shelter.

Source: Pop Up City