What makes us different?
Joerg Baumeister is the Founder and Director of the SeaCities Lab situated at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus as a world-first, highly inter-disciplinary initiative, building on synergies between established disciplines including architecture and design, urban planning, marine biology and engineering, tourism, and data science.
The SeaCities Lab is one of the largest groups of urban researchers in Australia due to its affiliation with the Cities Research Institute and partnerships within a network of researchers from around the world.
The SeaCities Team (from top left to bottom right): 1. Prof. Joerg Baumeister (Architecture, Aquatecture, Director), 2. Dr. Edoardo Bertone (Water Engineering, System Dynamics), 3. Dr. Yunil Chu (Naval Architect, Ocean Engineer, Post-Doc), 4. Elisa Fernandez Ramos (Architecture, PhD Candidate), 5. Dr. Ioana Giurgiu (Architecture and Urban Wetlands), 6. Tino Haug (Industrial Design, Research Assistant), 7. Assoc. Prof. Hassan Karampour (Structural and Ocean Engineering), 8. Despina Linaraki (Architectural Engineering, PhD Candidate), 9. Atiria Morrison (Architecture, Research Assistant), 10. Dr. Thang Nguyen (Urban and Marine Planning), 11. Krishnaveny Risheharan (Environmental Engineer, PhD Candidate), 12. Dr. Oz Sahin (Engineering, System Dynamics), 13. Assoc. Prof. Daniela Ottmann (Architect, Environment and Design), 14. Dr. Brit Winnen (Research Development Manager), 15. Prof. Hong Zhang (Coastal and Water Engineering), 16. Martin Ziarmal (Architecture, Research Assistant)
SeaCities' Mission is to combat Climate Change with Aquatic Innovations in three areas:
Floating Developments: Marine Protectors (SeaSurveyor), Artificial Reefs (SeaManta)
Aquatic Urbanism: Sea-Level Rise (Cities+1m), water-based Urban Design (AquaCities)
Aquaculture: Food Security (SeaOasis), Blue Economy (SeaFisher)
Floating Developments
SeaManta
An artificial coral reef, integrated into the marine ecosystem, that can be enjoyed by divers below the water surface. Above water, hospitality and dive facilities, a swimming pool and interactive aquarium displays are inviting everybody who is thrilled by the synergy of marine wildlife’s protection and attraction. The Floating reef structure is shaped by environmental criteria like water current, wind flow, and sunlight.
Status: Realisation prepared
SeaWatt 1000: The Clean Cheap Energy Solution on the Horizon
The upcoming Clean Energy solution on the horizon utilizes Floating Wind Farms, enabling deployment in deep waters, flexibility in location, reduced environmental and visual impact, and access to high wind speeds. With the introduction of new floating 15MW Trestle Type wind turbines, several advantages emerge, including lower construction and installation costs, extended service life, simplified maintenance, and increased standardization. In addition, the associated Floating Energy Island incorporates a high voltage grid, converts wind power into renewable hydrogen, offers energy storage capabilities, and synchronizes offshore wind energy production with onshore energy demand.
SeaSurveyor
The recently signed UN High Seas Treaty aims to designate up to 30% of international waters as Marine Protection Areas (MPAs). Hotspots of marine biodiversity are sea mountains that form shallow waters in the middle of the sea. Since the successful protection of MPAs depends mainly on a physical presence on-site, we propose to position over the sea mountains floating bases that survey the MPAs and are therefore called "SeaSurveyors".
Aquatic Urbanism
Cities+1m
A manual and test-run demonstrating how to provide coastal environments and cities with the best opportunities for a sea-level rise of +1m. Cities can be protected against sea-level rise, or they may retreat. But they are also able to accommodate or to advance onto the water. Cities+1m delivers a strategy that creates new opportunities by combining different scenarios to achieve the “best of all worlds”.
Status: Successfully prototyped
AquaCities
Urban water challenges like extreme flooding events, urban heat, and decreased availability of freshwater are negative side-effects of climate change. The application of the AquaCities method provides urban solutions which help to counteract by providing stormwater storage, evaporation-based cooling, and grey- and wastewater recycling. Positive side-effects are new green transport opportunities and an increased urban natural experience resulting in higher real estate prices.
Status: Application tested successfully
Aquaculture
SeaFisher
This patented structure has been designed for large aquaculture applications in a harsh off-shore environment. In the next years, it will be developed further with main industry partners (Tassal and Huon Aquaculture) and more than 30 international experts. It is as major project of the CRC Blue Economy, one of Australia's largest research programs.
Status: Phase 1 completed (see movie here) and Phase 2 from Feb 2024 to Jan 2026 has been approved.
SeaOasis
The SeaOasis is an experimental design response aimed at tackling the challenge of increasing food security through sustainable design. Problems and opportunities relating to current food supply were analyzed to formulate a specific design brief.
The brief aimed to identify key research directions that could support the improvement and sustainable future growth of current food systems through targeted design interventions and innovation.
Status: Ready for prototyping
Looking for cooperations
The most efficient transformation of theoretical knowledge into reality is always an integral target of our applied research projects. Especially due to the current challenges, the dimension and speed of solutions require substantial cooperation.
Therefore, we are currently looking for highly motivated Research Assistants and PhD researchers (for scholarships please see Griffith University) with an excellent educational background in architecture, environmental science, or engineering, sponsors who are interested in supporting us financially, and industry partners to develop together our projects further.