Waya is a concept for a floating town made of pyramid-shaped buildings, designed by the Italian designer Pierpaolo Lazzarini and unveiled in spring 2018. On paper, each structure would sit on a floating platform, generate its own electricity from solar panels and water turbines, make drinking water with a desalinator and even move under its own power. The idea was to fund a first, small module through crowdfunding, with an opening pencilled in for 2022.
It is important to say up front what Waya is and is not. The pictures on this page are computer renderings, not photographs. As far as we can find, no Waya module has been built or launched, and the 2022 opening did not happen. What remains is an interesting design study, and a useful way into a bigger question: could people really live in self-sufficient communities on the sea?
What the Waya concept proposed
Lazzarini's studio, Lazzarini Design, presented Waya as a modular system rather than a single building. Different pyramids would play different roles. Some would be private homes, others hotel suites, greenhouses, bars or entertainment spaces. Together they would form a cluster, which the designer called "Wayaland", with a small marina for boats.
The key numbers he gave at launch were:
- Height: the largest pyramid would have ten floors and rise about 30 metres (98 feet) above the waterline.
- Base: each main unit would sit on a floating basement of around 3,000 square metres, which would also hold the engine, energy storage and service equipment.
- Below the surface: the basement could hold optional underwater bedrooms with views into the sea.
- Materials: fibreglass, steel and carbon fibre, chosen to be strong and light.
- Movement: an engine and propellers in the basement would let a module relocate, rather than being fixed to one spot.
Why a pyramid?
Lazzarini said the shape drew on Mayan step pyramids, the geometry of Egyptian pyramids and the layered roofs of Japanese temples. The renderings show that mix clearly: the big units step back floor by floor like a Mesoamerican temple, while the small units are simple, steep triangles.
There are practical arguments for the form, too. A broad base and narrow top keeps the centre of gravity low, which matters on water. Sloping faces give a lot of roof area for solar panels at a useful tilt. And stepped terraces give every floor its own outdoor deck. Whether those benefits would outweigh the awkward interiors that pyramids create is something only a built prototype could show.
A cluster of the smaller units. Each one is a self-contained home on its own pontoon, with a glass gable end facing the water and solar panels covering the roof.
The single-family module in close-up. A wraparound deck, sliding glass doors and a balcony in the roof apex suggest a holiday villa more than a survival shelter.
A cutaway view of the underwater level. The concept placed bedrooms below the waterline, separated from the sea by large windows, an idea borrowed from luxury underwater hotel suites.
How it would power, feed and water itself
The "self-sufficient" label rested on three systems:
- Energy: photovoltaic panels on the pyramid faces, plus water turbines to capture energy from currents or the module's own movement.
- Water: a desalination unit under the main level to turn seawater into fresh water.
- Food: floating gardens and greenhouse modules to grow vegetables.
Each of these exists in the real world. Solar panels and small desalinators already run on yachts and remote islands, and hydroponic greenhouses grow food without soil. The hard part is not any single technology but running all of them reliably, year round, at sea. Desalination uses a lot of energy, cloudy weeks cut solar output, and salt spray is brutal on electronics and steel. No published engineering study tested how Waya would handle those trade-offs.
The flagship ten-storey pyramid with a motor yacht docked alongside and an aircraft-like craft hovering overhead. The terraces are designed as private decks for each floor.
Front view of a large unit, showing the symmetrical stepped design and a central boat bay at water level. Smaller pyramids appear in the background as part of the same cluster.
A lower-deck lounge area with sun loungers, swim ladders and steps straight into the sea. The renderings lean heavily on resort imagery, which hints at the intended market.
The money: crowdfunding and a 2022 opening
At launch, Lazzarini said the first and smallest module would cost about €350,000 (roughly $420,000 at the time). The plan was to raise that through crowdfunding. Backers would be offered nights in the finished module for around €1,000 each, a "Waya passport", an invitation to an inauguration planned for 2022 and a vote on where the community would be based, chosen from a shortlist. The designer floated the United Arab Emirates as one possibility.
He was candid about the challenge, telling Dezeen that until a first module was in the water, it would be "difficult to make people believe". That turned out to be the sticking point. We could find no public record of a completed crowdfunding round, a built module or the 2022 inauguration, so readers should treat Waya as an unrealised proposal.
Another angle on a group of family units, each moored a short distance from its neighbours. In practice, spacing like this would need careful mooring to stop modules drifting together in rough weather.
A small pyramid with a covered entertainment deck and a sleek personal boat docked in front. Larger terraced units rise behind it.
Floating cities that have moved beyond renderings
Waya is part of a long line of floating-city dreams, and some related ideas have made real progress:
- Floating neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. Amsterdam's Schoonschip project is a community of floating homes on a canal, sharing solar power and a local energy grid. It works because it sits in calm, sheltered water close to a city.
- Oceanix. The Oceanix floating-city concept, developed with backing from UN-Habitat, proposed a prototype off Busan in South Korea. Like Waya, it relies on modular platforms, but it has been developed with engineering firms and a host city.
- The Maldives. With most of the country barely above sea level, developers have pursued floating housing in a lagoon near Malé as a response to rising seas.
The common lesson is that floating living is easiest in sheltered water near existing infrastructure. Open-ocean communities still face big unsolved problems: storms and waves, corrosion, waste disposal, insurance, and the legal question of which country's rules apply.
The roof of a small unit is almost entirely solar panels. On a real building at sea, keeping those panels clean of salt and bird droppings would be an ongoing maintenance job.
A larger mid-size module with a two-person craft moored alongside. Its stepped decks repeat the pattern of the flagship pyramid at a smaller scale.
What to take from Waya
As architecture, Waya is a striking image: white pyramids on blue water, wrapped in solar glass. As a plan, it was always early-stage, with headline figures and renderings but no public prototype. That gap between a beautiful visual and a working building is common in concept design, and it is worth keeping in mind whenever a "self-sufficient city" goes viral.
The ideas behind it are still relevant. Coastal cities are looking hard at floating homes as sea levels rise, and many of the systems Waya imagined, from rooftop solar to small-scale desalination, are getting cheaper each year. The next floating community is more likely to grow from modest, well-tested projects in sheltered harbours than from a single crowdfunded pyramid.
An aerial view of the complete Wayaland concept, with what appear to be sports courts and a landing pad among the larger units; the concept imagined guests arriving by helicopter and drone-copter. This is the image most often shared online when the project went viral.
Sources: Dezeen: Lazzarini Design wants to build a city of floating pyramids; New Atlas: Wayaland; Inhabitat: pyramidal floating buildings; Lazzarini Design: Waya. Renderings: Lazzarini Design.
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