Floating Prespa / Пловечка Преспa
Floating Prespa / Пловечка Преспa
Prespa Lake lies on cross border between Macedonia, Greece and Albania, it has a specific environmental condition for being connected with the Small Prespa lake in Greece and Ohrid lake trough underground reveres under the mountain Galicica. This undergrounds system is one of the factors that create a drastic fluctuation in the water level on monthly and yearly cycles. More severe problem is the constant decreasing level of the water, which in now 10 m lower then the peak in 1965 or 50% of the water volume. This problem is in grat factot is due to the irrigation of the agriculture industry in the Prespa valley. The fluctuation of the level which changes te costline by severla hundreds of meters and this makes every urban infrastructure on the coastline lose its connection to the shore.
Prespa lake area is a national park which was recently added to UNESCO protected biosphere sites.
There is a need to explore the possibilities of a floating infrastructure in the coastline areas, which can follow the movement of the water levels or infrastructures that can be easily dislocated. The types of infrastructure reflect the local need and activities like: lake tourism, agri tourism, recreational fishing, wildlife observation etc.
The technique use can vary from local traditional building and craft techniques, to experiments with modern sustainable materials. Impelamentation of alternative sources of energy and alternative secondary systems is one of the main objectives. The project is intended as interdisciplinary research on sustainable living, and is intended for architecture students, engineering students, designers, artists, and local craftsmen.
As a artwork it can both as an utopian project, which opens new possibilities in sustainable design and urban planning. but it also bares a dystopian aspect if put in context of global warming and the rising sea levels, it prepares us to think how to survive in a sinking world.