Aboard Italy's floating pavilion at this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belèm, Brazil, delegates may experience a "surreal," perspective-altering encounter with the water.
As they descend the sloped perimeter of the 4,300-square-foot steel platform called "AquaPraça" ("water plaza" in Portuguese), visitors will find themselves eye-level with the brackish, muddy currents of the Pará River in the Amazon Delta region, a gateway to the Atlantic Ocean, and with concerns about sea-level rise.
AquaPraça's "water table" bisects the floating public plaza, rising and receding with sea levels in Brazil's Amazon River Delta.
"Very seldom do we occupy a physical structure that invites an embodied experience of our changing climate and the resulting fluctuations in the Earth's hydrosphere," said J. Meejin Yoon, B.Arch. '95, the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP). "While we often witness the impact of sea-level rise on land with flooding events or view tides, flows and levels from above, AquaPraça is a public space surrounded by and partially submerged in the water itself, creating a tangible experience that is as instructive as it is surreal or uncanny."
Yoon and Eric Höweler, B.Arch. '94, M.Arch. '96, co-founders of Höweler + Yoon Architecture, designed the floating plaza in collaboration with architect Carlo Ratti of Carlo Ratti Associati. Constructed in Italy, AquaPraça was unveiled this summer at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. It will remain in Belèm permanently as a gift to Brazil of novel public space - what Ratti refers to as a "civic catalyst."
Andre Corrêa do Lago, president of this year's U.N. climate meetings, said in a press release that the platform would create a striking presence at the conference, and serve as a symbol for "a lasting legacy of our joint efforts and a continuous reminder of the importance of sustainability."
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Accommodating up to 150 people for workshops, public gatherings and other cultural events, the plaza operates on principles of equilibrium, displacement and buoyancy. Interior chambers pump water in and out so that the structure rises and falls, balancing the volume of air held in ballasts and maintaining a freeboard a few inches above water level. At the center, a rectangular cutout or "oculus" provides an interior glimpse of the surface of the Amazon Basin, itself a critical indicator of ecological vulnerability. This slivered waterway bisects AquaPraça's sloped surface to create a level datum, or water table, where people can reflect and convene.
Harbored in Belém, Brazil, AquaPraça serves as both an anchor for the Italian pavilion at COP30 and a public space for raising awareness around climate change and sea-level rise.
"AquaPraça adjusts to water levels and occupancy in real time, allowing visitors to meet the sea at eye level," Höweler said.
"Relying on physics and careful calibration," Yoon added, "the constant equilibrium necessary for the structure to float resonates subtly with broader notions of balances in nature, while at the same time pointing to the ever-growing threat of imbalances that affect the Earth's hydrosphere and put our coastal communities at risk."
Beyond AquaPraça, Höweler + Yoon, in a ten-year partnership with Bartram's Garden and Mural Art in Philadelphia, is preparing to launch FloatLab, a circular floating structure that will be moored on the Schuylkill River. Contributing to Philadelphia's cultural infrastructure and raising public awareness about the area's history and surrounding ecosystem, FloatLab will serve as a living laboratory and a connection between the city and the river.
Yoon's climate-related projects span design practice and research. Recent work by the Design Across Scales Lab she leads at AAP include "Falling Ice and Rising Seas," a recent interactive visualization of how Earth's changing gravitational balances unevenly distribute sea-level rise from melting glaciers, and "Tree Folio," a digital twin simulating the cooling effects of strategically placed shade trees in New York City.
"AquaPraça can be viewed as more than an architectural project," Yoon said. "It is a platform, both literal and figurative, for deepening our collective understanding and experience of sea-level rise and the impacts of climate change on global cities and communities. And, as critically, it is an immersive civic space for advancing public discourse, fostering international cooperation and seeking collective solutions."
AquaPraça was constructed by Cimolai, a leading Italian steel company, and made possible through a unique international coalition, including the Italian Agency for Development and Cooperation, CIHEAM Bari, and the World Bank Group's Connect4Climate program, and with the support of BF International - member of BF S.p.A. Group (AquaPraça COP30 naming partner), Bloomberg Philanthropies, Costa Crociere, ENEL and Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. After COP30, AquaPraça will be donated by Italy to Brazil to become a community space for promoting social engagement on climate, cultural strategy and the creative industries in partnership with the state of Parà of Brazil.
