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Orsos Island - the smallest personal floating island yetin a fast growing market

Orsos Island is 20 meters wide and 37 meters long, with 1,000 m of living space available

The concept of a floating island has been with us throughout history, but sprang back into the limelight justfour years ago when Wally Yachts came up with an island-themed megayacht named theWally Island.

The Wally Island was a 99 meter (325 feet) "gigayacht" design that dwarfed the vast majority of luxurymegayachts and reconceived the yacht as a floating personal island, a mobile address that can be used as ahome, an entertaining space or even a moving exhibition or show space.

At an estimated US$200 million, the Wally Island was not for the common man, but the concept appears tohave ignited a flurry of activity in the marine industry, with these new designs all more focused on acomfortable movable living space framed as a floating island more than a boat.

It seems that now the naval architectural mold is broken, and has moved outside traditional areas, newerpurpose-built, holistic designs have begun to emerge, most notably the work of work ofWally Yachts,Dutch Docklands Maldives and Italian industrial designer Michele Puzzolante.

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These "floating cities will allow the next generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas forgovernment," says the Seasteading Institute. "The most successful can then inspire change in governmentsaround the world."

Floating homes with energy autonomyOne of the many benefits of a floating island is that you begin with a clean sheet, and hence the potential to

create an entire infrastructure from scratch leaves itself open to many new technologies being incorporatedto achieve synergies well beyond the normal scope - such as Japans Shimizu Corporation and its idea that itcan construct aself-sufficient, carbon-negative floating city in the Pacific Ocean.

The Solar Floating Resort (SFR) uses dye-sensitized solar cells in the building fabric. The SFR is

constructed of two 15-mm (0.6-in) layers of fiberglass reinforced balsa wood with a 30-cm (11.8-in)vacuum between. Puzzolante has solar cells in both the inner and outer layers, so that both artificial lightfrom the interior and sunlight can be harvested. It's an indication of the amount of thought that is now beingdevoted to the future of marine habitats. By carefully conserving energy supplies, and reharvesting themwherever possible, Puzzolante's Solar Floating Resort offers energy autonomy.

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Now an Austrian-based company intends to manufacture much smaller, tailor made miniature floatingislands, at a fraction of the cost.

Position, position, positionThe price of waterfront property continues to grow internationally thanks to there being a finite quantity of

waterfront and a growing and ever more affluent population seeking it."Position, position, position" is the catchcry of the real estate industry everywhere.

The whole point about a floating island is that you can reposition it. It could just as easily be mooredsomewhere near New York or London, as the Bahamas,

Several times in the last decade there have been ingenious attempts to create "synthetic real estate" in primepositions.

A company called First Penthouse begandeveloping the free space on the rooftops of existing buildings justsix years ago, and much value has been created by utilizing perfectly positioned real estate that had neverbefore been ascribed much value.

First Penthousebuilds bespoke skyward extensions that perfectly match the character of the existingbuilding and can add an entire floor to your building in 24 hours. If the residents own the building, they cansometimes create significant value.

The free space on top of buildings rarely gets any consideration on a balance sheet, but offers a majoropportunity in creating very valuable virgin real estate.

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The pre-fabricatedLoftcubeaddressed the same market with a made-to-order cube helicoptered intoposition, commissioned and fully functional in 24 hours.

Dubai quadrupled its amount of waterfront land to cater for this lack of supply with the clever creation ofwaterfront property with its ingeniousPalm, World and other man-made island projects. More recently, Reef

Island in Qatar debuted.

Orsos Island ConceptMore recently, three superyachts took the idea of a floating island as their theme, but the price tag on thesebehemoths would be beyond US$100 million to put in the water, and at your rule-of-thumb 10% (of thepurchase price) per annum in upkeep, a cool US$10 million a year minimum to run.

Orsos Island Conceptbrings the concept within range of everyone with a lazy five million. At that price,synthetic real estate such as floating islands become financially viable.

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Founder Gbor Orss is aiming to combine the positive aspects of mainland real estate and luxury yachts atmuch reduced cost, albeit in comparison to superyachts.

The project is Austrian-based, and constructed, with manufacture in Germany and Hungary.

A prototype is underway and will be opened to the public at the end of 2013.

The costs of pimping your island vary dramatically depending on your tastes, but a basic model will coastaround EUR 3.6 million (US$4,450,000), an order of magnitude less than previous floating islands, enablingnew lifestyle possibilities.

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The concept of a floating island is not new, having first surfaced in Homer'sOdysseyand making countlessappearances in literature from Jonathan Swift'sGulliver's Travels, C. S. Lewis' science fictiontrilogy Perelandra, Hugh Lofting'sThe Voyages of Doctor Dolittleand the first artificially-constructedfloating island makes an appearance in an 1895 novel by the father of science fiction, Frenchman JulesVerne.

Building one has been a different matter and it wasn't until 2008 that we saw a design capable of living up tothe concept in Wally Yachts "Floating Island" gigayacht: the Wally Island.

Since 2008, we've seen the rise of Yacht Island Design, a company which specializes in developing floatingislands on large mega-yacht bases. Yacht Island Design's Tropical Island and "Streets of Monaco"followed with the promise that Yacht Island Design could tailor you an environment like no other, providedyou had tens of millions of dollars to spend decking out your $50 million megayacht.

Yacht Island Design's "Tropical Island Paradise", is a 90 metre island with a top speed of 15 knots

Yacht Island Designs looked set to be the main producer of man-made floating islands for the foreseeable

future. It has several other fully developed designs which have not yet been released publicly, including amodern interpretation of a massive Chinese Junk, and an Arabian-themed superyacht.

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More recently another ambitious yet seemingly-viable floating island concept has emerged in the form ofProject Utopia, a structure with more in common with an oil rig than it does with a yacht. In the word's ofthe design consultancy which created it, Project Utopia "breaks the traditional naval architectural moldwhich the market has come to expect and offers a truly unique outlook free from any conventional design

constraints."

Designed in conjunction with BMT Nigel Gee, Yacht Island Design's Project Utopia measures some 330 ft(100 m) in length and breadth, spans 11 decks and has the equivalent floorspace of a present-day cruise liner- enough space to create an entire micro-nation.

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The idea of a floating city is also not new. In 2010, we saw the designs of ArchitectVincent Callebaut'sLilypad concept a completely self-sufficient floating city to accommodate 50,000.

With a shape inspired by the highly ribbed leaf of Victoria water lilies, the double skin of the floatingecopolis is to be made of polyester fibers covered by a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2), which wouldreact with ultraviolet rays and absorb atmospheric pollution via a photocatalytic effect in the same way astheair-purifying concreteandpaving stones.

The Orsos Island Concept is at the other end of the floating island scale - at 20 meters wide and 37 meterslong, it's a very small island, but more than enough for a sophisticated, high tech layout serving almostevery need, and with 1,000 m of living space.

The Orss Island concept's founder is Gbor Orss, an entrepreneur with extensive experience in hospitalityand real estate, with the combined knowledge of the two industries leading him to the development of the

ORSOS Islands project.

When the project first commenced, Orss' goal was to create an exclusive, high-quality hotel chain based onfloating platforms, but as the project progressed, it was decided to attempt to bring the cost of the islandsdown as to make them as affordable to as many individuals as possible.

It makes sense to develop real estate where it is most sought after - on the water - the vast proportion (morethan 90%) of humanity lives in close proximity to the water, and as the number of people vying for a finitecommodity increases, (waterfront property is unquestionably the most sought after of any residential

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property location), the cost is fast approaching, or perhaps has already passed the point where it iseconomically viable for a lot of people.

Floating homes aren't new either, and there are some interesting takes on exactly what new water-borne realestate might look like, from the floatingNackros Villato the collection of floating residences at the Germanlakeside resort Lausitz Geierswald to theTrilobis submerged floating apartment conceptwe covered adecade ago.

The Orsos promises island living on a smaller scale than a luxury yacht, but one that is no less comfortableand much more cost-effective in terms of purchase and maintenance.

As it stands, the Orsos Island has the equivalent of six double rooms, and Gbor promises plenty of roomfor up to 12 residents, and if required, accommodation for up to four staff members as well as an office anda recreation room can be built into the design. Indeed, if accommodation capacity is your sole goal, theOrsos can theoretically sleep 80.

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The idea of being able to change the scenery outside the front door, is now a real possibility.Floating Pontoon Sales- www.aqua-dock.co.ukModular pontoon sales. Made in UK Commercial, Marine & Private

About the Author

After Editing or Managing over 50 print publications primarily in the role of a Magazine Doctor,

Mike embraced the internet full-time in 1995 and became a "start-up all-rounder" quite a few

start-ups later, he founded Gizmag in 2002. Now he can write again. All articles by Mike Hanlon