Are These Cities ACTUALLY Possible?

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I'm Dami, a licensed Architect living in Vancouver, BC. I make videos about architecture, career, and creativity.

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[Visinthe]

I’m so curious how these cities incorporate their weather protection, I can only imagine the waves if a hurricane was coming!

[joshmcinnesart]

As someone that's grown up on the water building floating structures. It's more difficult than you would ever think to keep a large stucture from ripping apart with the smallest waves. When something weighing tons is jumping up and down just a foot every second it'll turn metal joints into warm butter

[christopherwojtan]

Naval engineer. It's all a pipe dream. The costs to maintain a floating structure are enormous and the longevity is only 40-50urs. Not to mention they are always built to static population sizes with no growth or shrink margins.

I mean what would your economic viability be to maintain that kind of community? You still require 100% land based products and support to maintain the thing.

[John-mbl]

Naval engineer here. In current technology, I would say impossible. Ocean surface is so dynamic, it took a special geometry to stay still on the surface of the water without actually swayed or rolled by the waves. That's why ship hulls looks almost similar. Not to mention the sea-sickness people may have on board. And that turtle-shaped city? A big no no.. That's not how we use biomimetics design.

[TheDiamond]

Ain't no way it only costs 8 billion.

[captainCaybrew]

The Maldives one is the only one I see as even having a slight possibility. Natural protection with the lagoon, tested concept, and could be a last resort to deal with rising sea levels in the country

[robertwhatley]

I think it could be used by costal areas with a need for space. But I see it connected to land

[bauds]

the turtle one is so stupid it's funny, it's straight up a suburban housing area complete with golf carts so you can drive to the rest of the ship

[renaultopelbmw]

I love how most of these floating cities is that they seem to be planned around a 365day warm summer day. There are winds, storms and other elements that make most of these ideas unrealistic.

[hanzflackshnack]

In some Vietnamese, Moken (and I'm sure others) cultures they live on their boats for extended periods of time so vendors create little floating communities for communication and trade. I know whoever builds it wants to own it but if progress were really the goal, they'd invest that money into inventing low cost, spacious, ocean worthy houseboats and a port town for the needs of the people that live on the water. Rich people would buy floating mansions to flex but in the end it's more logical than figuring out how to stop the ocean from doing what it does best.

[AnggrekBiru]

Cruise ships are floating cities..., make the room paid monthly, and it doesnt include the food, add public and goverment office space on the ship, and voila, its a floating city with below 10k inhabitants

[donaldodiaz]

We going back to Atlantis with this one!

[Allegheny]

The last one is the most likely as the first two are non starters either from engineering or logistics problems, although I doubt the last one would look anywhere near as cohesive as its portrayed.

[GoodBaleadaMusic]

All of this will depend on its relative isolation. This will only really work adjacent to current coastal population centers where out in ocean is the only option.

[jisezer]

I think that the palms in Dubai made it clear that this will never work

[LabeilleCreative]

The concept of arcology is so awesome, perhaps one day we’ll see something in this scale.

[KlayExterior]

I think the fourth one is more realistic, but at the same time it just depends on the government improving it am I a main concern is about the sewage system, The water department, and the waste management

[yinriader]

For those who have watched the TV series Ocean Girl. An underwater city sounds more practical as it can be powered by underwater currents, energy from the waves on the surface floating platform which also gets solar and wind energy. :]

[elietheprof]

$8 billion / 60, 000 people = $133, 333 per person, which is not *that* bad considering today’s housing prices.

[alecjordan]

That thumbnail. She is so adorkable 😍. When I think of the future of cities I pessimistically think of visions like those in Blade Runner. These types of cities seem more likely to exist in a scaled-down version in the future as tourist destinations kind of like Disney World or like Dami said, a cruise.