Worldbuilding: Man-Made Islands & Homes on Water

 Worldbuilding: Man-Made Islands & Homes on Water

As an author who is always working on refining the worldbuilding in my fantasy world, I'm constantly seeking new ideas, whether it's architectural styles from ancient times or futuristic concepts, or cool animals and creatures to include in the various environments characters will be journeying through. 

During one of these forays into the internet for inspiration, I stumbled upon this video called "Futuristic Copenhagen Architecture Builds on Water":

I thought the two ideas shared here were both pretty neat, and because I do have a setting that is essentially a city on water, I'm considering them as possible architectural and urban design solutions for my fantasy setting. 

Floating Buildings

The idea of floating apartment buildings - conveniently tied to the decks so as not to float off - is one that I hadn't actually thought of. Sure, there's always been the idea of living on a ship or boat, but this is something I hadn't really considered, mainly because I wasn't certain if it would be possible from a less technologically-advanced perspective. 

I'm no architect, so I may be overlooking some pretty important stuff, but I imagine that using materials that naturally float, such as particular certain kinds of wood (due to its buoyancy) and perhaps even clumps of weeds or mosses (would that work?), would make it easier for people to build homes or other buildings that floated on water. 

It seems to me that artificial floats could also be created - significantly large containers of air made of wood or clay and sealed so that they could help lift the structure (though I wonder how often they would need to be changed out - as in, how long would it take for the wood to rot or the clay to break down - and if there were ways of applying certain treatments to make the materials more water-proof, such as certain oils). 

The weight of whatever it is you're building would also play a large role in how successful your floating structure would be. In that case, it would be important to use building materials that are light-weight, such as redwood or cedar, perhaps? 

I'll have to do a little more digging to get into the specifics of how this could work in my fantasy world, but I'm enjoying figuring it out!

Man-Made Islands

The idea of the man-made islands, on the other hand, has been an pretty cool one I've seen many times, not only in this video and in articles describing man-made islands in places like Dubai, but also in historical accounts - which makes it seem much more technologically viable for some of my fantasy societies knowing that land reclamation techniques have been available for centuries. For instance, there is the example of chinamitl islands made by the Aztecs, and artificial islands off the coast of Malaita made by the Langa Langa Lagoon and Lau Lagoon people. 

The only issue with artificial islands is that they are a lot of work. Most of the time, it means displacing large amounts of sand and soil in order to create a new island, and that can both harm the ecosystem and take a very long time to do with relatively primitive tools. One consideration is if a separate kind of foundation can be put down and built upon, and whether that foundation (ex: wood, concrete, etc.) could be able to sustain the weight of soil placed on top of it in order for the islands to have at least some greenery without sinking a little every year (or at an even faster rate!).

Actually, the idea of man-made islands that don't last very long has given rise to another idea in my mind: water-dwelling nomads. Well, not living in the water, but rather on the water. People who go from location to location in the ocean creating temporary island-homes, living there for a while, and then moving out again when their island-homes begin to deteriorate. I like that idea so much that as of this moment, that's something I'll be featuring in my fantasy novels!

Finally, I think the concept of an island has also evolved to mean certain non-organic structures built on lakes or on the ocean, which is something interesting to keep in mind as I go about with my worldbuilding.