Architecture: Floating settlements after a global catastrophy

I'd rather survive a cataclysm in some kind of ark drifting on the endless waters than living a buried life in a silo deep underground. Hope that those of us who survive can lash together rafts of some kind and find where these floating cities are anchored... I am sure that the PTB will rescue some of the bedraggled rats hanging onto their arks' sides, as they will need workers for their farms and factories - can't see the PTB rolling up their sleeves and doing any serious survival work themselves.

Here are a couple of innovative concepts for floating settlements - it is said that this kind of living could become reality within the next decade as these self-sustainable floating cities can address societal issues such as overpopulation - or perhaps the PTB are readying themselves for something happening within the next couple of years? (http://inhabitat.com/7-futuristic-floating-cities-that-could-save-humanity/atdesign-office-floatingcity-2/?extend=1)

At offshore Dubai, the building of floating villas and artificial islands have started up again after the money problems of 2008. These luxurious three level "boat" villas, called seahorse homes, will probably not survive a global tsunami (seems as if they could easily topple over), but the designs are attractive. Only for multimillionaires, however; they are nearly sold out even though occupation is only scheduled for 2017. The main en suite of a floating villa is submerged and has floor to ceiling glass windows giving beautiful views of (the artificially created) coral reefs and sea life. The villas are called seahorse homes after the new conservation area in which these villas will be floating, where the endangered seahorse will be protected. (http://inhabitat.com/breathtaking-underwater-villas-let-you-sleep-with-the-fishes-in-dubai/floating-seahorses-by-kleindienst-group)

Architects have also collaborated with Jean-Michel Cousteau in designing floating private islands, guaranteed to last 100 years, for Dubai's 'The World' project (an artificial archipelago of more than 300 islands). The area is shaped like our planet's seven continents. Floating islands in the Maldives and off the Miami coast will also soon be offered to those with bags of money. (http://inhabitat.com/green-light-for-the-worlds-first-floating-luxury-homes-in-dubai/oqyana-world-first-by-waterstudio-nl)

There are ideas about the construction of underground, link:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/incredible-underground-cities-to-relieve-overcrowding/story-fnjpja3r-1227332656557

I ask you this sincerely:

What do you think might be preserved?

Azur said:

I ask you this sincerely:

What do you think might be preserved?

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No one and nothing ?!
honestly I do not know.

Ynna said:

I'd rather survive a cataclysm in some kind of ark drifting on the endless waters than living a buried life in a silo deep underground. Hope that those of us who survive can lash together rafts of some kind and find where these floating cities are anchored... I am sure that the PTB will rescue some of the bedraggled rats hanging onto their arks' sides, as they will need workers for their farms and factories - can't see the PTB rolling up their sleeves and doing any serious survival work themselves.

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These floating cities don't exist yet and probably never will because whit what material and workforce people want to build such a thing after a global catastrophe? With the tools of a caveman, this is certainly not possible.

Appart from that, such a thing most probably also can't survive a huge tsunami wave. No one is going to build something like that in the near future and even if some rich guy try, it would take waay to long to finish it.

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no-man's-land said:

Ynna said:

I'd rather survive a cataclysm in some kind of ark drifting on the endless waters than living a buried life in a silo deep underground. Hope that those of us who survive can lash together rafts of some kind and find where these floating cities are anchored... I am sure that the PTB will rescue some of the bedraggled rats hanging onto their arks' sides, as they will need workers for their farms and factories - can't see the PTB rolling up their sleeves and doing any serious survival work themselves.

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These floating cities don't exist yet and probably never will because whit what material and workforce people want to build such a thing after a global catastrophe? With the tools of a caveman, this is certainly not possible.

Appart from that, such a thing most probably also can't survive a huge tsunami wave. No one is going to build something like that in the near future and even if some rich guy try, it would take waay to long to finish it.

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I tend to agree with no-man's-land. The pictures represent a pipe dream and serve as eye candy.

...and here's a video of what You can build with clay and some whit and no powertools: __https://www.facebook.com/TheMindUnleashed/videos/vb.432632306793920/1037186329671845/?type=2&theater

I'd rather survive a cataclysm in some kind of ark drifting on the endless waters than living a buried life in a silo deep underground. Hope that those of us who survive can lash together rafts of some kind and find where these floating cities are anchored... I am sure that the PTB will rescue some of the bedraggled rats hanging onto their arks' sides, as they will need workers for their farms and factories - can't see the PTB rolling up their sleeves and doing any serious survival work themselves.

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The above was written very much tongue in cheek...

Mainly, I wanted to look at these developments in Dubai from an artistic, designer point of view.

Nevertheless, is a floating city really such a far fetched concept?

For instance, since the disaster of hurricane Katrina, engineers have been researching ways to prevent similar tragedies caused by storm surges. They are in the process of designing - mega engineering - and experimenting with a new, floating New Orleans. In the east of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, engineers have erected a supermodern new floating suburb - they say that this is the way the coastal cities of the world will probably all be going in an effort to protect them from the effects of climate change and destructive storms. They admit that people are slow to accept the idea of floating cities - people don't like changes - and that it usually takes some great disaster for them to come around. (See an article on the Amsterdam floating suburb at http://time.com/2926425/the-floating-homes/).

The video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE8UsH0MuBI looks at the practical concerns about the stability, power, food and water supplies of floating cities, but engineers also keep threats like piracy in mind, and also the biggest threat of living far out on the ocean: Earth's worsening climate conditions. The residents of New Orleans usually flee when a dangerous hurricane approaches, but on a floating city far out at sea there is nowhere to run. Meteorologists say you can't really engineer against the unpredictability of huge storms and the best thing to do is to get out of its way. Floating cities are thus also engineered to out-ride destructive walls of water. Check out the above link to see how all this could be done.

It's also advisable to get a good idea of how the possibility of cities floating on the ocean has come about, so have a look at some documentaries on the evolution of big ships to see how their stability, speed, comfort and maneuverability have developed - for example, check out the documentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qh0SBH9EU on the big cruise ship, the Independence of the Seas (the name is significant, pointing to a good measure of self-sufficiency on the ocean); this ship is described by its captain as a floating city, and he says it's command bridge is like that of the Starship Enterprise. The documentary on this enormous cruise ship has interesting flash backs on the history of big ships to help people understand the great advances made in ship engineering to make a big passenger ship like this possible in modern times. Also take a look at the documentary on the huge container ship, the Emma Maersk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcMu242Hs9Q. Enormous container and passenger ships have been inspirational to engineers in designing a floating, new New Orleans and to engineers in Amsterdam to build their floating suburb.

A hundred years ago few if any people could imagine the enormous passenger air planes of today, not to mention that people will one day live on a station in space, and can have a (leaping) stroll on the moon. That people one day will live permanently in cities floating on the oceans will no doubt become a reality too.

These pics are awesome! I cannot wait for the future, there will certainly be amazing technologies, hopefully floating cities as well.

Architecture: Floating settlements after a global catastrophy
This idea is gaining ground with people alienated from those ruling the land with all their nonsense laws, rules, regulations.

At any rate, these artistic ideas are probably in existence already (somewheres). The powers that be tell us things and it's probably
not accidental that we are seeing these designs.

Anyone who's flown over large portions of the world knows that almost anything could be out in the oceans and no one would know.
Google earth and satellite photo's are routinely purged of objects. Just something to think about. Also in the Ancient Aliens Series,
which is propaganda, but fun nonetheless, there is a portion which has to do with so-called mystical islands, invisible islands, moving
islands, and in the original Dr. Doolittle they are shipwrecked on a floating moving island.

Some homeless people that have created tiny floating islands from junk bottles and other scrap. I think this is a solution which few have thought about. Rich people have yachts for reasons which have nothing to do with their seemingly obvious statement of wealth, but rather because these are both escape hatches and mobile homes which preclude the less well heeled from following. While the mind controlled trod after one another fleeing into Europe, the more inventive could be living a better existence if only they could break free of herd mentality.

https://whywhywhyquestionmark.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/are-there-carniverous-floating-islands-with-meerkats/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Island



As good as some of those are this is the ultimate goal.

Floating islands are a great concept.
However the engineering needs to be very advanced.
As an ex-sailor, I can tell you all that materials do not last long in sea water. Hulls need to be cleaned regularly, and metal hulls need to be degaussed or they just rot away with the electrical currents which flow in them.
Pumps need to be regularly serviced, and filters need to be cleaned and replaced. Marine organisms will grow and attach themselves to practically anything, so serious thought needs to be put into it.
As it is, ships need to be scrapped after about twenty years of service, because the hulls become so thin from the rust. Even aluminium corrodes.

The other thing that floating objects do, is to flex, as the waves pass beneath them. The effect on the structure can be quite dramatic, and need to be engineered to withstand this flexing, you've all seen videos of ships breaking up in the waves, and the bigger the floating object, the greater are the forces on it.

When they were having major floods in Brisbane some time ago, I was watching houses being washed away, which were built on piers to be above the flood line, but this flood was exceptional, anyway I thought to myself "What if the houses could be built to float, but be secured on pylons in such a way that they would not float away but would ride up as the levels of water increased" This would only be limited on the height to which you could build the pylons.

The "Ark of Noah" would be a good place to start.

When they were having major floods in Brisbane some time ago, I was watching houses being washed away, which were built on piers to be above the flood line, but this flood was exceptional, anyway I thought to myself "What if the houses could be built to float, but be secured on pylons in such a way that they would not float away but would ride up as the levels of water increased" This would only be limited on the height to which you could build the pylons.

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Such houses already exist in the Netherlands. We also have houses on stilts and houseboats of course.
The future has already started over here. We would be lost if we were to wait till after the cataclysms before starting something new.


https://youtu.be/nFcxaymOpes

Other vids on similar subjects:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IFkcPml_tw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTeJXgDy3y8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY19PePE9Xs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE8UsH0MuBI

There might be some value in a community under sail, for getting away from inevitable social disintegration. Dimitry Orlov had a nice, inspiring guest post on this very subject in his blog a couple of years ago.
Enjoy:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-sea-gypsy-tribe-start-up-manual.html

Thanks for sharing, Yupo.

If I remember correctly, belonging to and participating in the sea-gypsy tribe was the ultimate dream project of Clif High of web-bot fame (halfpasthuman.com). Don't know what came of it, though. ;)

To me, it seems like a relatively easy way to get out of harms way when TSHTF (if you can afford such) but it also looks like a cop-out and an evasive maneuver to dodge some valuable lessons. Not to mention coming short on the help you could possibly provide to needy others in dire straits. OSIT.

but it also looks like a cop-out and an evasive maneuver to dodge some valuable lessons

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I imagine there are lessons to be learned no matter what the chosen course of evasive action. Getting to safe places and surviving the initial aftermath of whatever is coming seems sensible rather than selfish to me. I call it having a back up plan. Right now, helping people prepare for possible hard times to come is what feels right to me.
There is a lot to be done in the way of helping people improve their physical and psychic health. Opportunities to gently show people better directions abound.