A floating city designed based on a lily pad. This design was created by Belgian architect, Vincent Callebaut. Click to enlarge.(http://vincent.callebaut.org/)
Despite being a science student, architecture is kind of a big interest of mine. I’ve seen a few different concept photos of floating cities, or in other words, cities that are not built on land but rather on the ocean or sea. I never really gave it much credibility in terms of real life applications and just thought of them as really cool architectural pieces.
The Globe and Mail posted this article a few weeks ago pertaining to the potential uses for a floating city, or seastead. By building a floating city, people who are unable to obtain work visas to do business in other countries may be able to stay in a floating city and conduct business outside the targeted country’s jurisdiction.
Mock picture of exaggerated rising sea levels in city. (image from: http://www.marineinsight.com)
Of course, the concept of a floating city goes beyond the business venture as it was originally suggested as a solution for the rising sea levels due to global warming that will diminish our current usable land for housing. Sea levels are believed to be rising because of the warmer temperatures that cause water to expand in addition to melting glaciers. A floating city is a novel and innovative idea, but how realistic is this?
The financial cost of a floating city would be enormous. When considering a ship or other large-scale structures, the cost of maintaining these in the ocean for long periods of time is already a lot. The estimated price for maintaining a city is projected to be upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars. In terms of stability of the structure, smaller structures are more responsive to wave motion and considering that the sea is not always in an ideally calm state, this will pose a problem. For structure, steel is the most commonly used material for offshore construction (i.e boats) but steel must be maintained regularly as it is at risk for corrosion and wear which are not preventable.
Ship, Barge, Island -- Proposed models to follow for floating cities. (image from: http://seasteading.org)
Several models of floating cities have been suggested. The “lily pad” design shown above is considered an island design and compared to other designs has disadvantages. Since it is essentially, an island, it is predicted that it would have the least mobility but if large enough might be the most stable design against wave motion.
Although a floating city sounds like a nice idea and cool place to visit in your lifetime, personally I don’t think it is a realistic idea. The things I have mentioned above are only touching on a few of the more science/engineering aspects that need to be considered. There are also legal, political, and social implications that should be looked at. Despite it being an out there idea, if given the chance, would you want to live in a floating city?
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