First Of Its Kind 'Floating Village' Proposed For Gowanus Bay

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — A new proposal from a climate nonprofit and local designers goes a step further than just bringing development to Brooklyn's waterfront — it suggests actually building on the water itself.

The owner of the Gowanus Bay Terminal has teamed up with two Pratt Institute professors to build "floating structures" that would let businesses or organizations set up shop on top of the water.

Designers will build the moveable concrete structures with The RETI Center, a local nonprofit that hopes to put its climate-change lab and training center onto them. But, should they be successful, the idea could expand to create a "floating village" for anything from education programs to nonprofit offices, designers said.

The structures would be the first of their kind in New York City, designer Gita Nandan said.

"The idea is to make it sort of an urban pilgrimatic framework so other nonprofits could plug in," said Nandan, who is a planning professor at Pratt and founder of local firm thread collective. "It would almost be like a barge sort of system — it exists, but just not quite like this. This would be the first more commercial space (on the water)."

Nandan and Zehra Kuz, another Pratt professor who owns Oasis Design Lab, are leading the design of the structures, which until now are more commonly found only in European waters. The two are also working with Space&Matter, a European company that built a floating neighborhood in Amsterdam, and NYC-based ONE Architecture.

In the United States, floating structures have typically taken the form of house-boat communities in Florida or, more recently, floating hotels in Rockaway, but haven't expanded too far into the commercial realm, she said.

But, with climate change and the threat of rising sea levels, the idea could become more common.

"New York City has a funny relationship with our waterfront," Nandan said. "We want people to not be in fear of it, but feel like you can actually expand out into it."

The floating structures will not only give The RETI Center — which aims to prepare New York City for climate change — a place to do its research, but will also be environmentally-friendly themselves.

The 18-foot by 60-foot structures would be built with "climate responsive architecture." They would include a lower level where labs or office space can be set up and then build out a "climate articulated" structure, such as a space for solar panels or a greenhouse, onto the top, she said.

"We really want it to be able to function as a model for how you can live off the grid," Nandan said.

The structures — which have been dubbed "South Red Hook" — can also offer a chance for residents to get out onto the water in a way they hadn't been able to do before, Nandan and Gowanus Bay Terminal Owner John Quadrozzi Jr. said.

The terminal offers walking tours and other visiting opportunities now, Quadrozzi said, but there really isn't a way for people to come get to know the site without being invited by the private companies that work there.

"We want a place people come where they're attracted by floating structures, but then once they are there (they can have) the educational process," he said. "It's sort of like a portal where they're connected with all kinds of sites, whether it be architectural, industrial or cultural."

Quadrozzi added that the idea seems especially relevant now given that the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, a streetcar proposed to connect Brooklyn and Queens, will increase the number of people that can access the area, which he said is largely a "transit desert" now.

Designers have talked with other local organizations about hosting cultural or youth educational events at the site once it is built so that even people who don't work on the structures can come visit them, Nandan said.

The next step will be to finish the design phase of the project and figure out the proper way to have it permitted with the city. If all goes well, they could start building as early as next year, she said.

"We'll hopefully be putting something in the water next year — even if it's something super small," she said. "We're just sort of mapping it out now."