Manhattan is an island but also one of the world’s most popular cities. The land area is not large enough to support all the people who move there or have facilities for multiple recreational activities. Keeping in mind that the population and our needs continue to increase but the land doesn’t, 3deluxe designed We The Planet Campus (WTP) – a mobile, floating green platform off the Manhattan shoreline for convening international summits, workshops, and educational programs which focus on transforming our world for a better future!

The fluid, organic form of the island was inspired by the natural elements surrounding it -water, sun, and wind, meanwhile, the biotope is also designed to give back as much as it takes from nature by generating its own energy and drinking water. The floating campus was commissioned by the New York-based organization ‘We The Planet’ (WTP). The campus is meant to be a communicative platform that facilitates the work for protecting all life on land and under the sea. It will host international conventions, global summits, workshops, and educational programs that focus on co-existing sustainably and preserving our planet. WTP’s vision for the campus is to make it 100% self-sufficient in generating energy and drinking water while floating marshland biotopes make up 50% of the overall surface areas.

WTP’s campus is an inspiring architectural creation that nurtures and encourages those working towards building more people-friendly structures that live in harmony with their surroundings instead of the current parasitic nature of the situation. There will be a new generation of corporate buildings that offer more than the functional shell of a building by taking a stance on relevant social issues such as climate protection and nature conservation by actually providing space for those who are working towards solving these problems. “After the shock of the pandemic and the social polarization of recent years, there is a longing for positive change. It is time for architecture and urbanism to take a more ambitious approach to humanize our living environment,” says Dieter Brell, Creative Director of 3deluxe.

The campus sits on a floating platform that is scalable, mobile, and protected from rising sea levels. Its floating natural biotope provides greenery and organically extends the tightly packed land area of the city. The partly public platform not only represents an additional destination for New Yorkers for sports, leisure, and communication but also an attractive new honeypot for western Manhattan. The campus also includes a meadow, a sand biotope, and the thatched green roofs which create living environments for a diversified, urban animal and plant world apart from the marshland biotape. The construction materials include wood, clay, reeds, and recycled materials such as bioplastics.

WTP’s ambitious campus also plans to use latest surface technologies for air cleansing along with algae bioreactors, wind farms, photovoltaics, and marine power plants that will be located under the floating platform for energy extraction. We The Planet Campus wants to be a symbol of change in future architecture as it stands on the belief that buildings should give back as much as they take – this means compensation for soil sealing, CO2 production, the use of energy and materials, while creating fair living environments for the animals and plants who were there long before us.

Designer: 3deluxe