Now that the debate about climate change is truly raging and more and more people are coming down on the side of climate change being real and bad (just look at the increased extreme weather people are experiencing), people are starting to think about the side effects of climate change. Rising sea levels are one of the predicted consequences of global warming caused by melting of the polar ice caps (that’s the ice on the land not in the sea mind). Therefore one of the lowest countries in the world, the Netherlands, which has been battling with the water for centuries, has had to start thinking about dealing with this progressive threat to their land. Should Waterworld ever happen, then Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio in the Netherlands could be one step ahead with a series of new floating apartment complexes.

The Citadel that forms the first part of a new development called ‘New Water’ which aims to be the first floating apartment to grace mother Earth. The fantastic looking renders aside, the apartment block will apparently use 25% less energy than its land borne brethren by using the water for a cooling system. By embracing the water that constantly invades the Dutch land, the country could end up host to some fantastic new waterside real estate and save energy all round. Olthuis, who has a number of floating dwellings under his belt, thinks that the future is learning to live with water rather than trying to contain it and he could be right. Time after time Man tries to fight against the forces of nature and inevitably we fail. In this case with the rising water level you might end up finding more and more of these floating residences as other options are exhausted.

[Via Inhabitat - Click for more renders and details about the development]