Seems Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut isn't expecting any of us to change our ways any time soon, and is developing a prototypical auto-sufficient amphibious city to float our future away. While I have no architectural/design background, I find myself questioning the feasibility of these 50,000-person eco-dorms, but fully embrace the wonderful futurist concepts presented in the following images.
Vincent Callebaut's Lily Pads
This form of Aqua Urbanism --from underwater hotels to floating foundations to power stations to epdimic outbreak barges-- has really begun to take off.But you need look no further than the floating marketplaces like Benjarmasin, Damnoen Saduak, or Cai Be to see that the burdens of over-crowding and limited space have, indeed, taken us to see on more than one occasion. That being said, I'll take a Lilly Pad over Cai Be anyday, but only if I can choose my other 49,999 floaters.
Here's a view of two different levels...
Green mountain walls, solar panel roofs, submersed sea beds, palm lagoon rainwater purification systems, and a Co2-processing tiatium dioxide skin all help to maintain and improve the surrounding conditions without introducing any further degredation to natural resources. And if you live to 2100, you just might see it...
According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC (intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th century). The international scientific scene assesses that a temperature elevation of 1°C will lead to a water rising of 1 meter. This increase of 1 m would bring ground losses emerged of approximately 0.05 percent in Uruguay, 1 percent in Egypt, 6 percent in the Netherlands, 17.5 percent in Bangladesh, and up to 80 percent approximately in the atoll Majuro in Oceania (Marshall and Kiribati islands [my former Peace Corps locale] and step by step the Maldives islands). - Vincent Callebaut
And it's kind of purty at night...
