Wandering Islands
Imagining a city that grows above its original land through a giant balloon and modular housing.
- My role
Independent development
- Year
2023
- Context
Independent speculative project
- Tools
AnyLogic · Grasshopper
Project context
Wandering Islands is a speculative architectural study of island land loss and residential migration, proposing an aerial settlement that can move and expand. It considers how residents could build a new city above their submerged land while retaining community relationships, ways of life and cultural identity, translating these needs into housing units and public infrastructure.
A giant hot-air balloon lifting the city is an idealised premise. Burning fuel heats the air inside the envelope, with the density difference between the inside and outside air providing buoyancy. A basic framework and essential facilities are first built on the original site, before the living spaces rise into the air, exploring how a place of everyday life might continue after the land disappears.
Fractal structures and modular housing provide 12 basic residential units and variants that residents can combine and extend according to household size and daily needs. The supporting structure supplies connections, transport and water. Housing and public spaces grow through residents’ construction, forming a self-expanding suspended city under idealised buoyancy and energy conditions.
The project uses a Schelling model in AnyLogic to study the relationship between individual choices and settlement patterns. Grasshopper combines simulation results with form-generation rules to explore how local housing needs could shape an overall settlement. The outcome focuses on system studies, spatial organisation and conceptual expression.