The Plastiki Expedition
The Plastiki Expedition was conceived by adventurer David de Rothschild and aimed to draw attention to the state of our oceans. The project involved building a boat from plastic bottles and recycled materials, which was then sailed across the Pacific Ocean from North America to Australia.
The four month voyage saw The Plastiki pass through the ominously named 'Eastern Garbage Patch', a region six times the size of the United Kingdom where vast quantities of plastic pollution have accumulated because of the currents.
The brief for the Plastiki project was to design a boat that could be sailed across the Pacific on an expedition that would not just highlight the problems facing the oceans but also showcase a new paradigm for design.
The boat was designed to be fully recyclable at the end of the journey, generate all its own energy and emit no pollution.
Michael Pawlyn describes the design process for the Plastiki in this article for the AJ's sustainability blog Footprint
Client - Adventure Ecology
Architect – Exploration
Naval Architect - Andrew Dovell
Structural Engineer - Atelier One
Materials Consultant - Arup