Floating Life – Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project

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Floating Life – Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project

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  • Project Name: Floating Life: Tanka in the Currents
  • Student Name: Yang Ge
  • Softwares/Plugins: Rhinoceros 3D , D5 Render , Adobe Illustrator , Adobe Photoshop
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Excerpt: ‘Floating Life: Tanka in the Currents’ is a Masters Design Project by Yang Ge from the ‘School of Architecture – Royal College of Art.’ The project aims to reimagine the future of the Tanka floating settlement in Lingshui by integrating environmental resilience, collective infrastructure, and ritual practice. Through a system of adaptive floating public spaces, it strengthens community identity, responds to ecological and climate challenges, and reconnects land and water, transforming traditional rituals into a living framework for resilient collective urban life.

Introduction: Floating Life: Tanka in the Currents investigates the relationship between collective identity, ritual practice, and floating urbanism through the case of the Tanka community in Lingshui, Hainan. Historically, the Tanka can be understood as a form of maritime nomadism whose social and spatial organisation developed through long-term boat dwelling and fishing practices outside dominant territorial systems. While most Tanka communities were absorbed into land-based society during the twentieth century, the Lingshui community maintained a floating way of life through the development of cage aquaculture.

Today, however, this settlement faces intertwined environmental, social, and cultural challenges, including ecological degradation, vulnerability to seasonal typhoons, and the gradual erosion of collective rituals. The project explores how architecture can operate as a form of collective infrastructure capable of addressing these challenges simultaneously. By studying historical maritime rituals and their transformation into contemporary urban processions, the project proposes a system of floating public spaces, ritual infrastructures, and adaptive architectures that reconnect fragmented communities across the boundary between land and water. Rather than preserving tradition as a static heritage object, the project investigates how ritual practices can be reactivated as a living framework for future collective life.

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Site Context

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The diorama reconstructs the spatial organisation of the floating settlement, illustrating the relationship between fish rafts, navigation channels, and collective infrastructures within the lagoon.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Domestic spaces are integrated with aquaculture production, producing a hybrid spatial condition in which living, working, and circulation occur simultaneously.

The project is situated within the floating Tanka settlement of Xincun Lagoon in Lingshui County, Hainan Province, which represents the largest remaining floating Tanka community in China. Historically organised through fishing and boat dwelling, the settlement underwent significant transformation following state-led relocation policies in the 1960s and the introduction of cage aquaculture in the 1980s. As fish rafts gradually expanded across the lagoon, a distinctive floating settlement emerged in which domestic life, production, and circulation became spatially integrated.

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating restaurants occupy strategic intersections of navigation channels and function as important spaces of social exchange within the settlement.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The 3 × 3 metre grid derived from traditional fish cages provides the basic spatial and structural module for the proposed floating interventions.

The project focuses on the central area of the lagoon, where major navigation channels intersect and where existing floating restaurants, public facilities, and maritime infrastructures already act as points of collective activity. Simultaneously, the project extends beyond the lagoon itself to consider its relationship with adjacent urban settlements and religious procession routes.

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Lightweight construction techniques and incremental extensions enable continuous adaptation to changing environmental and economic conditions. | The box model analyses the settlement through three overlapping dimensions: dwelling traditions, territorial infrastructures, and ritual practices.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Traditional fishing tools are understood not only as productive devices but also as material records of maritime knowledge systems. | The floating house and fish bell represent the integration of domestic life, production, and ritual signalling within everyday maritime culture.

Programmatically, the proposal combines environmental infrastructure, repair facilities, ritual spaces, public gathering spaces, floating bridges, shrines, and performance platforms. Together, these elements establish a flexible system capable of supporting everyday life, environmental maintenance, emergency repair, and seasonal collective rituals.

Design Process

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The proposal reconnects the floating settlement and the city through a distributed network of ritual infrastructures, public spaces, and floating processions.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Cage Culture
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Temporary Structure

The design process began with an investigation of the historical development of the Tanka settlement through archival research, field documentation, and physical modelling. A diorama model was constructed to analyse the spatial organisation of fish rafts, navigation channels, and everyday life, while a layered box model examined the settlement through three overlapping dimensions: historical dwelling practices, territorial infrastructures, and ritual traditions.

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Self-Construction
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Adaptive Floating Urbanism

This research revealed that environmental degradation, climate vulnerability, and the erosion of collective rituals constitute the three primary challenges facing contemporary settlement. These observations were translated into three corresponding design frameworks: environmental infrastructure, repair and resilience, and ritual public space. By mapping annual ritual calendars, typhoon seasons, and historical maritime processions, the project identified opportunities to reconnect collective practices with existing spatial systems.

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Conceptual Sketch
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Conceptual Sketch

A series of programmatic matrices, spatial archetypes, and modular prototypes were subsequently developed to test relationships between public space, infrastructure, and ritual activity. Through iterative physical and digital models, the project explored how floating architectures could remain adaptable, reconfigurable, and collectively operated over time.

Final Outcome

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Master Plan and Assembly Sequence
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Master Plan and Assembly Sequence
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The section demonstrates how environmental infrastructure, public space, and ritual activities coexist within a layered floating urban environment.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Derived from historical boat construction, the mast structure operates simultaneously as infrastructure, landmark, and ritual marker.

The final proposal consists of a distributed system of floating public infrastructures that reconnects the Tanka settlement with the adjacent city through ritual movement and collective activity. New floating structures extend the existing fish-raft grid and provide spaces for environmental management, public gathering, repair activities, and ceremonial events. Their modular and buoyant construction allows spaces to be continuously reconfigured according to seasonal and social conditions.

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The floating bridge system combines structural support, circulation infrastructure, and ceremonial occupation within a single architectural framework.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Temporary attachments and modular construction enable the bridge system to expand, contract, and reconfigure according to ritual requirements.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating public spaces expand during collective events and contract during everyday use, supporting multiple temporal modes of occupation.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The movement and assembly of shrines reconstruct historical ritual circulation as a contemporary form of collective infrastructure.

At the centre of the proposal is the reconstruction of historical maritime ritual practices through a network of floating shrines and temporary bridges. During annual festivals, shrines are transported by boat and assembled through a changing bridge system that transforms the lagoon from a productive landscape into a collective ceremonial space. Floating stages and public platforms further support performances and gatherings, creating a temporary spatial continuity between water and land.

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Temporary market structures extend festival activities into everyday economic exchange and informal social interaction.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The physical model investigates the spatial relationship between modular construction, public space, and the surrounding water infrastructure.
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
The floating bridge establishes both a physical and symbolic connection between terrestrial and maritime territories.

Conclusion: By integrating environmental resilience, public infrastructure, and ritual practice within a single architectural framework, the project proposes a new model of collective floating urbanism. Rather than preserving tradition as a static cultural artefact, it reimagines ritual as an adaptive and resilient infrastructure for future community life.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]

Site Context

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project

Design Process

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project

Final Outcome

Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project
Floating Life - Tanka in the Currents: Reimagining Floating Communities Through Ritual, Culture, and Adaptive Architecture | Masters Design Project

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