In contemporary and conceptual art, the relationship between nature, space, and experience has taken on new forms, many of them floating. Structures that move, that don't cling to the ground, that appear and disappear, have captivated architects and artists from the late 20th century until now. In this review, we analyze four international projects that turn water into a stage, a medium, and an active part of the work.
1. The Floating Piers (2016) – Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Location: Lake Iseo, Lombardy Region, Italy
Dates: June 18 to July 3, 2016
Total area: 100,000 m² of fabric
Footbridge length: 3 km
Materials: Yellow polyamide fabric cover on high-density polyethylene floating modules
Estimated attendance: 1.2 million people 
Originally conceived in 1970 by the artistic couple Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon , the project was born 46 years later, seven years after Jeanne-Claude's death. For 16 days, a floating structure connected the village of Sulzano with Monte Isola and the private island of San Paolo. Covered in a vibrant yellow fabric that rippled with the water, the walkway allowed visitors to walk "on the lake," a perceptual act that blurred the boundaries between solid and liquid surface.
The work invited a massive, accessible, and free bodily experience, funded entirely through the sale of Christo's drawings and original works. It wasn't just an installation, but a poetic and logistical gesture of colossal proportions. Water ceased to be a boundary and became a path, a support, and a metaphor for human transit. 
Source: Christo & Jeanne-Claude Foundation
2. Bridge of Light (2010) – Bruce Munro
Location: Penrith Artificial Lake, New South Wales, Australia
Exhibition date: May – August 2010
Elements: Hundreds of floating LED spheres distributed over the surface of the lake
Visibility conditions: Night installation, only visible after sunset. 
Bruce Munro , a British artist known for his light installations, designed Bridge of Light as part of the Field of Light exhibition for the Sydney Festival. The project consisted of a line of floating lights that created the illusion of an intangible walkway over the lake.
Unlike other floating works that prioritize physical interaction, Bridge of Light proposes a purely visual crossing. The viewer doesn't walk on the water, but rather with their gaze. It's a work that interrogates perception, a "massless bridge" that only exists when observed. The result is a light meditation: an invitation to redefine what it means to cross.
Source: brucemunro.co.uk
3. Floating University – Raumlabor Berlin
Location: Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin, Germany
Dates: May – September 2018 (the Floating University Berlin project continued in 2020 and is still running, albeit with some variations in its format and activities due to financial and operational constraints)
Surface: Approximately 500 m2 (several floating platforms)
Materials: Floating wooden platforms and lightweight structures, green roofs, recycled elements. Commission: Independent collaborative project / experimental urban intervention.
Raumlabor Berlin designed Floating University as a floating educational and community laboratory in a water retention basin on Tempelhofer Feld, the former Berlin airport. This temporary structure functioned as a space for collective research, workshops, meetings, and experiments, bringing together students, artists, scientists, and citizens to explore new sustainable and resilient urban practices. Floating University transcends the traditional function of educational architecture by situating itself in a mobile and adaptable space in direct contact with water. The project reflects on the relationship between the city and its aquatic ecosystems, proposing a learning space that adapts to the natural environment and climate change. Furthermore, it promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement, challenging conventional ways of inhabiting and educating in public space.
Source: raumlabor.net
4. Surrounded Islands (1983) – Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Location: Biscayne Bay, Miami, USA
Dates: May 4-17, 1983
Number of islands intervened: 11
Total length of the enveloped perimeter: 11.3 km
Materials: Pink polypropylene fabric (603.870 m²), steel anchors and floats
Collaborators: 430 workers (including divers, engineers and volunteers)
Authorizations: 3 years of legal and environmental negotiations
In one of the duo's most ambitious projects, Christo and Jeanne-Claude surrounded eleven islands in Biscayne Bay with a gigantic swathe of pink fabric. The project involved a complex environmental study and highly precise technical coordination, given the potential ecological impact and logistical magnitude.
Surrounded Islands wasn't just an aesthetic intervention; it was a political and ecological gesture. It transformed Miami's landscape for two weeks, turning it into an almost surreal image visible from the air and from the shore.
The work highlighted the islands' invisible contours, making the edges—not the center—the protagonist. The use of the saturated, unnatural pink color unsettles the eye and recontextualizes the natural space as a constructed work.
As in all the duo's works, temporality was an essential part of the concept: an architecture of disappearance , which questions permanence as a value in art.
Sources:
https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/surrounded-islands/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-christo-and-jeanne-claude-wrapped-the-islands-of-miami-in-pink-fabric-180974866/
https://www.pamm.org
5. Trosten Floating Sauna (2023) – EstudioHerreros
Location: Mouth of the Akerselva River, Oslo Harbour, Norway (next to the Munch Museum)
Dates: Opening in 2023
Surface: Compact (approx. 35 m2), part of a cluster of floating saunas in the area
Materials: Certified wood assembled in a dry dock, recycled aluminum for facades, large Green Label certified terrazzo tiles for thermal inertia, lightweight metal structure.
Commission: Commissioned by the non-profit Oslo Sauna Association, with the vision of “bringing steam to the people.”
Trosten is a universally accessible floating sauna located in Oslo's harbor, almost adjacent to the Munch Museum and part of a group of floating saunas at the mouth of the Akerselva River. The project proposes a colorful and meaningful volume that functions as a collective meeting space, a place for individual relaxation, and an observatory of the city and its ecology. It is designed to offer an integrated experience with the fjord, the water, and the public space of the Harbour Promenade, promoting social interaction and well-being. The program is organized around the steam cabin with a terrace with direct access to the water, and an amphitheater facing the fjord that allows for small events and observations of the urban and natural surroundings.
Trosten is a pioneering, universally accessible floating sauna, equipped with a steam recirculation system that facilitates wheelchair use and guarantees social inclusion. Its certified wood construction, along with the use of recycled aluminum and high-thermal-inertia terrazzo, reflects a deep commitment to sustainability and reducing environmental impact. The structure was assembled in a dry dock outside Oslo and installed on a floating prefabricated concrete platform, minimizing disturbance to the environment. This process is part of an experimental and sustainable approach that also contributes to decarbonization. The name "Trosten"—which means "thrush" in Norwegian—symbolizes migration and good fortune, making a poetic connection with the environment and the idea that architecture can be an agent of social and environmental change.
In all four cases, the floating structures have operated as devices that destabilize the landscape and thought. They are not mere objects on the water, but artistic strategies for reinterpreting public space, the body, and time . Whether through light, fabric, community architecture, or illusion, these works invite us to walk—physically or mentally—through territories without solid ground. The ephemeral nature of these floating islands is not a defect: it is their power and their idea.
