from Sunday Herald, 23 September 2007
Flotillas of floating homes, shops and offices are being proposed as "21st Century Arks" to ride out the floods that global warming will bring.
A Scottish creative designer and entrepreneur is developing plans for a series of "aquatic villages" along the Clyde, including houseboats, pubs, cinemas and museums, all linked by waterborne buses and taxis.
Based on designs being pioneered in the Netherlands, Bill Borland's Creative Mode company has been talking to developers, planners and government agencies about his idea. And he thinks it is an idea whose time has come.
"The statutory bodies talk of bringing life to the Clyde, but I want to put life onto the Clyde," he told the Sunday Herald. Properties built along the waterfront will be flooded more often and more seriously over the next 50 years because of rising sea levels and fiercer storms caused by climate change, he warned.
"If what you have is submerged in soil and filth and becomes uninsurable, why persist in fighting the reality of living along a major river?" he said. The aim should be to "float through life as opposed to digging in".
Borland (54), who was brought up in Paisley but is now based in Halifax, has named his scheme "Aquartek". He has made specific proposals for floating communities at the Cuningar Loop of the Clyde at Dalmarnock in South Lanarkshire and at Braehead in Renfrewshire.
His latest venture is a submission to develop part of the river by the Briggait, a former fish market in central Glasgow. There he envisages a hotel extension, a restaurant, a bar and 16 studio offices, all floating on the water.
Borland has also developed Aquartek schemes for the Mersey in Liverpool and the Thames in London. He said he was also having discussions on waterfront development proposals in Fort William.
The schemes include "aquapods" or houseboats, that could provide starter units for first time buyers and would be powered by solar panels and wind turbines. Bigger houses - "aquavillas" - would be built on "unsinkable" pontoons from strong lightweight timber and metal frames, and be well insulated.
Other properties could be built on stilts, high above flood levels and linked by high-level walkways. "Floating hotels, museums, art galleries, shopping complexes, bars restaurants, sports arenas and stadia, theatres and cinemas can all be accommodated," Borland said.
Such concepts have already been developed by architects in Holland, he pointed out. The low-lying country "had woken up to the reality that it must not just swim or sink but float on living water to survive and to continue to prosper."
Borland added: "A Scottish-led initiative to implement some of the solutions that our European neighbours are now implementing would lead the way forward with imagination and merit."
According to a recent study for the Scottish Government, as many as 100,000 properties in Scotland are at risk of flooding, including 11,750 homes and commercial premises in Glasgow. More than half a million properties are thought to be at risk across the UK.
One of Borland's schemes for the Clyde has been considered by Scottish Enterprise. "Though the proposal is an imaginative one and would appear to have merit," said one official, "it is not really at the stage where it can be considered by Scottish Enterprise as a potential Clyde Waterfront project".
The Scottish Government stressed that the first priority must be to cut the pollution that is causing climate change. But it accepted that it was also essential to investigate "any potential opportunities".
"We encourage local authorities to consider a broad range of options for flood alleviation and they are required to consider the implications of climate change in the design of flood risk management measures," said a government spokesman. "We have received correspondence from Mr Borland and will reply in due course."
Friends of the Earth Scotland urged authorities not to dismiss Borland's vision out of hand. "People who consider the idea too far fetched need only look to places like Canada and the Netherlands where floating homes and offices are already in use," said the environmental group's chief executive, Duncan McLaren.
"There can be little doubt that if cities like Glasgow wish to develop land in areas at risk of future flooding then they will seriously have to consider some of these design ideas."
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