Forest City Brings 4 Artificial Islands to Southeast Asia

Vertical cities are a potential solution to the world’s overpopulation problem, but they aren’t necessarily the only answer. After all, building these “cities” isn’t much like building a conventional city. Vertical cities don't require new infrastructure—like road networks—and they often occupy as much area as a few city blocks.

Artificial islands aren’t exactly a revolutionary idea, but they could play a role in alleviating population density—and creating a four-island city off the coast of Malaysia is a decent way to find out if they can.

Forest City is a massive project underway in Malaysia to create a modern and green metropolis. (Image courtesy of Country Garden.)

Welcome to Forest City

The city will be outfitted with its own economic sector, which will help generate jobs for its citizens. (Image courtesy of Country Garden.)

Forest City, simply put, is a massive endeavor. The project will see four artificial islands popping up out of the Johor Strait, built of reclaimed land and designed to mimic the surrounding shorelines. These islands will feature modern residences, technology research facilities and up to 220,000 jobs for Malaysia’s growing population.

The city will serve as a mixed-use green development, incorporating abundant greenery and a smart city design in an attempt to keep a low energy profile. How does it plan to do this? The majority of the development is designed to function without cars.

The vision behind the project is to recreate the symbiosis between built and natural environments. A restored mangrove system surrounding the islands is designed to promote sea life and an abundance of greenery keeps nature close to the islands’ numerous structures and residences.

The islands' edges, like this inlet, are designed to mimic and interact with marine habitats. (Image courtesy of Country Garden.)

According to a representative from Country Garden, the Hong Kong-based developer of the project, “the edges [of the islands] are designed to mimic naturally occurring features of Malaysia’s coastal ecosystems, including tidal pools and shallow bays that provide critical marine habitats and support local fisheries.”

Building with Environmental Awareness

Forest City will span roughly 5.3 square miles (or about 1400 hectares) when completed. When the project was started in 2013, the original plan was to develop nearly 7.7 square miles (2,000 hectares) but there were a few issues that couldn’t be ignored.

The four islands will occupy the Johor Strait between Singapore and Malaysia, within easy transit distance of both countries. (Image courtesy of Country Garden.)

Forest City’s planned location places it directly between Malaysia and Singapore. Both of these countries are heavily involved in the fishing industry, so when local fishermen voiced concerns that the land reclamation involved in building the islands was causing a massive increase in fish deaths in the area, Country Garden and partner Johor’s Esplanade Danga 88 Sdn. Bhd. had to scale it back a notch.

The updated version of the plan is designed to nurture a seagrass preserve to help encourage local marine life.

Infrastructure from Scratch

Although the archipelago will have roads for motor vehicles, this network will be limited in favor of pedestrian traffic. (Image courtesy of Country Garden.)

A particularly large issue facing a project like Forest City is the necessity of creating infrastructure.

To help with this challenge, the city is being constructed in four stages, the last of which should be completed by 2045. Each stage will include various levels of infrastructure development.

One key part of the developing infrastructure is a set of three main incoming roads for the project. Per a traffic impact assessment (TIA), these roads will be phased in with the four stages of the project, with the first one due for completion in October 2016.

An overhead look at the network of footpaths and parks for pedestrian traffic. (Image courtesy of Country Garden.)

Because vehicles won’t be allowed on the majority of the archipelago, a different approach to transportation was necessary. The compact metropolis will stay connected via a network of parks and gardens covering the rooftops of buildings—which should make for a pretty nice sunset walk.

Country Garden has also been working on setting up a system for light rail transit to Malaysia, a ferry network to Singapore and a high-speed rail service between both countries.

Designing a Smart City

With a project this large, technology like building information modeling (BIM) almost needs to be involved.

Although Country Garden hasn’t made any plans for types of software, the company said that BIM is definitely in Forest City’s future. The developer plans to use cameras and drones to monitor the city in real time. That information would then be compared to a BIM model and necessary adjustments made to keep everything running smoothly.

“The digitalization of the whole city is the foundation of other smart digital services,” according to a representative at Country Garden. “For example, it enables accurate positioning of city assets which supports smart amenity maintenance.”

A City for the People

Forest City seems to be part of Southeast Asia’s rush to urbanize its residential areas. Although the finished product is nearly three decades away, the metropolis promises housing and employment for a young, hip generation that wants to stay close to nature.

“’Forest City’ is a city for the future, a vision and longing that was born out of 30 years of experience influenced by China’s pace of internationalization,” said Bin Mo, CEO of Country Garden.

What do you think? Are artificial islands the future of our cities? Comment below.

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