Idrees Rasouli

Design and Urban Innovation


About
News

Practice
Projects
  1. SSE HQ
  2. Tate II
  3. Jebel al-Jais
  4. CCTV HQ
  5. Qatar Library
  6. The C
  7. Rotana
  8. Aspire Zone
  9. Eton Finish Line
  10. Hucknall Links
  11. Inner Harbour
  12. Lusail Marine
  13. River Soar


Research
Projects
  1. GATEway 2030
  2. Child’s Playground
  3. World of Hope
  4. Ford Autonomous
  5. Peace Garden
  6. Celebrating Life
  7. Mangai
  8. Ghost
  9. Seoul Social Software
  10. Tokyo Social Software
  11. Microkinetics
  12. Beyond Grey
  13. Future Mill Road
  14. Digital Preparation
  15. Decolonised Innovation


Start-ups
Ventures/Enterprises
  1. Qaf 1.0
  2. Sealeaf 1.0
  3. Create Cambridge


Teaching
Learning/Activities
  1. Artefacts
  2. Healthy Cities
  3. Future of Work
  4. Urban Interventions
  5. Care & Resilience
  6. Smart Workplace
  7. Design Ethics
  8. Critical Thinking + Doing
  9. Urban Justice
  10. Urban Innovation


Pedagogy
Education/Scholarship
  1. Rethinking Creativity
  2. Repositioning the Art School
  3. Multi-course Structure
  4. Cross-cultural Pedagogy & Practice


Publications
Articles/Reports
  1. Post-Disaster Social Regeneration
  2. Disaster Recovery by Design
  3. Human-Connected Leadership
  4. Decolonised Innovation
  5. Rethinking Urban Partnership
  6. Designing Under Extreme Resource Constraints


Presentations
Talks/Workshops
  1. The Architecture of Money
  2. The Six Realities
  3. Reduced Inequalities
  4. Resilience Through Design
  5. Is the Future Inclusive?
  6. The Thinking City
  7. AI and Creativity
  8. Technology for Social Good
  9. Tradition vs. Innovation
  10. Rethinking Civic Engagement



© 2025 Idrees Rasouli
Mark

Sealeaf 1.0
Waterborne Agriculture

 



— Floating Agrilcultural System for Cities —

Current Situation (Need Drivers).

Key Facts & Figures.

Context.


> Today, 55% of the world's population is urbanised. Almost 340 million people will reside in the world's top 21 megacities by 2030, of which 17 are coastal. Sealeaf is a modular floating agricultural system that challenges existing land use and culture of global food importation by returning food production to the centre of its consumption.

> Simultaneously, we are facing continuous uncertainties such as epidemics, Brexit, volatile supply of oil, and rapidly changing weather conditions, which are interrupting urban food supplies and increasing dependency of economies for many farmers. All of these conditions are resulting in the global mass and long-distance importation of our food, such as vegetables and fruits from far away regions --- causing immense use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate warming, as well as increasing costs of a healthy diet.

> To address this global problem this project explored possibilities for localising food production and making consumption highly efficient in urban areas - and proposes Sealeaf 1.0, a modular floating farm system — designed for wet-weather coastal cities and nations such as Singapore. Sealeaf 1.0 uses the ocean’s and inner-city river’s surface to produce 6/7 yields per year within controlled farming practices (hydroponics system), whilst generating its own energy, capturing rainwater and using organic nutrient concentrate to grow vegetables and fruits on water.

> Sealeaf 1.0 originated as a partnership receiving international award and private funding, and was incubated at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London where it went through a comprehensive period of development that included engineering processes, from early concept studies to prototype testing and pitching to potential investors.


The 4th Generation of Agriculture (floating farms).

Location of Global-level Intervention.

Location of Local-level Intervention & Type of Crops (Singapore).

Local-level Service System.


Sealeaf 1.0 (Proposal Video).

Sealeaf 1.0.

Sealeaf 1.0 (usability factors).
Sealeaf 1.0 (usability factors).

Sealeaf 1.0 (module).
Sealeaf 1.0 (floatation).

Sealeaf 1.0 (sectional view and embedded technologies).

Sealeaf 1.0 (scale model).
Sealeaf 1.0 (site model).

Sealeaf 1.0 (prototype production).
Sealeaf 1.0 (prototype production).

Sealeaf 1.0 (founders).
Sealeaf 1.0 (exhibition).


Organisation + [Credits]
Sealeaf, [Idrees Rasouli]

Role + [Team Size]
Co-Founder, [6]

Date + [Duration of Involvement]
2012-13, [13 months]

Funder + [Project Location]
Public & Private, [Singapore]

Status + [Project Type]
Proof of Concept, [New Product Innovation]

Brief + [Challenge]
Creating the World’s First Floating Farm, [Disruptive Market Innovation]

Collaborators [Research & Design]
Project Team (Sebastiaan Wolzak, Jason Cheah, Roshan Sirohia)


Press
Fast Company    
Inhabitat

Medium    
Core77



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Mark