Spiral Island

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spiral Island in March 2000

Spiral Island was an artificial floating island in a lagoon of the Caribbean Sea , north of Cancún in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo . It was built by the Briton Richart "Rishi" Sowa, among other things, from empty disposable bottles and is inhabited by him. After two islands lost in hurricanes, the third island is now called Joysxee Island .

Spiral Island I.

A first prototype was created by Sowa in 1997 in Zipolite, a small settlement on the west coast of Mexico, in the municipality of Santa María Huatulco . The musician, artist and carpenter from Middlesbrough fastened disposable bottles under a three-meter-wide paper mache bowl , which gave it the necessary buoyancy. Then he built a hut out of branches. Four months later, the construction was destroyed by a hurricane called "Pauline".

Spiral Island II

In 1998 he started a larger project, this time on the east coast of Mexico, one kilometer south of Puerto Aventuras on the Yucatán peninsula . In four years of work, he created the 16 by 20 meter island out of bamboo tubes, wooden panels and disposable bottles. As an avowed environmentalist and recycler, Sowa planted various plants such as mangroves on the island and built a two-story house, a solar stove and a self- composting toilet on it .

250,000 plastic bottles tied together with nets provided the lift. Coated with sand, the structure weighed around 60 tons. The spiral was the construction concept for enlarging the initially much smaller floating platform. The name of the island is also explained with the theories of Abraham Maslow about human needs (the image of a spiral for personality development and the search for perfection, however, goes back to Alfred Adler ). This island has already achieved national fame and the media reported about it. In July 2005, it was destroyed by Hurricane Emily .

Joysxee Island

Frustrated, Sowa wanted to give up his project, but then he received financial support from the manager of a local ecological park and other investors. In 2007 he started the third version of his island, which he named Joysxee Island , in a lagoon on the island of Isla de Mujeres north of Cancún . With a diameter of 25 meters, it is even larger than Spiral Island. He built a three-story building with a solar system on it, a solar-powered waterfall with a stream and three beaches. The island is his vision of a sustainable life with low resource consumption. Rishi Sowa is constantly improving and expanding his island, with the support of volunteers. Since 2008 he has been offering guided tours of the island in order to sensitize visitors to environmental issues. In 2014 his new partner moved to the island.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richart Sowa: A green island made of plastic bottles. In: Greentravelife.com. December 5, 2017, accessed May 23, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Jenny Awford: No man is an island: British DIY Robinson Crusoe builds his own floating paradise off the coast of Mexico out of 150,000 recycled bottles - and now he's found his Girl Friday! In: Daily Mail Online. November 7, 2014, accessed May 23, 2018 .

Coordinates: 21 ° 14 ′  N , 86 ° 44 ′  W