Let me propose the bubble hotel. It bases on the fact that there is a booming market for exotic hotel vacations. It ranges from Ice hotels, to tree hotels, and there is even a underwater hotel in use as we speak. Jules Underwater Lodge in Florida. There has been big intents of underwater mega hotels in d...
When we talk about colonizing the oceans we should think about the most basic unit that will allow to survive on the open ocean As the development of the rescue boat shows a open boat that gives you flotation is not enough (you would die from overexposion to the sun or get trown over by storms. So the kind...
Probably the best concept of all for ocean colonization is the submerged bubble concept. How to create living space on the ocean, ocean colonization technology, submarine base, captain nemo lifestyle, open ocean aquaculture, deep sea mining, scuba tourism, underwater hotels, sea orbiter... ....
-- Edited by admin on Thursday 3rd of April 2014 02:49:07 PM
Maybe the World’s First Underwater restaurant, Ithaa could be another reason for the paranomic view of the Indian Ocean.
The Ithaa Restaurant sits 15 feet below the waves of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a coral reef and encased in clear acrylic, offering diners 270-degrees of panoramic underwater views.
The first aquarium-style underwater restaurant was designed by MJ Murphy in New Zealand and constructed in Singapore with materials provided from the USA. The final design was later shipped to the Maldives.
The restaurant is reached by a wooden walkway from the nearby over-water Sunset Grill Restaurant, and seats just 14 people for exclusive dining with a real difference. To enter the restaurant, visitors climb down a spiral staircase in a thatched pavilion at the end of a jetty. They enter the building, which has a curved roof like a tunnel, from above
After spending a whopping $5 million on the infrastructure and interior designing, the restaurant was acquired by the world famous, Hilton Resorts. By adding this restaurant to the Hilton family, the public’s eyes were drawn towards this spectacle created underwater.
With the huge capital investment on the initial construction, the restaurant has a huge variety of food widely spread of a huge range. The Meals range from USD $120 (lunch for hotel guests) and USD $250 (dinner for hotel guests and Bed & Breakfast meal plan)
It is estimated that the restaurant, which is placed in extreme conditions of the Indian Oceans, will only last for 20 years.
'Sea Orbiter' Model: Photo courtesy of SeaOrbiter Project
Part submarine, part research vessel, the 'SeaOrbiter' is currently on view at a Korean expo
It could be an alien spacecraft or a 21st century version of Captain Nemo's Nautilus from Jules Verne "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," but in fact it's a live-aboard, ocean-going laboratory that could be exploring the seas as soon as late next year, says CNN in a recent news report.
Called the SeaOrbiter , the research vessel is the concept of French architect Jacques Rougerie. Currently the centerpiece of France's pavilion at Expo 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea, it has spent almost 12 years floating around as a mere concept. It recently completed its industrial design phase and construction is slated for October this year.
"All technical issues are resolved, all the modeling is done," says Ariel Fuchs, education and media director of the SeaOrbiter project. "We gathered institutional and industrial support five or six years ago and it's been a real institutional and financial project for the last two years."
It is expected to cost around $43 million and when built, will be 58-meters in height, taller than Nelson's Column, a monument in London. When launched, around 50% of the vessel will be below the water line, allowing for constant underwater study, Fuchs says.
"One of the first users will be the science community," he says. "It's designed to explore the ocean in a new way, mainly spending time under the sea, giving people the opportunity to live under the sea for a very long time, to observe, to undertake research missions, like marine biology, oceanography and climate issues."
The 21-room spaceship-shaped underwater hotel promises breathtaking views.... Just make sure you don't open the windows
By Jay Hilotin, Chief reporter, XPRESS
Published: 00:00 May 3, 2012
DUBAI: Dubai is back in the spotlight for its out-of-the-box projects as Drydocks World revealed remarkable details of an underwater hotel to be built off the emirate's coast.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the company said it has signed an agreement with a Swiss company to develop the World Discus Hotel, a series of spaceship-shaped structures, part of which is a habitable area submerged under the sea.
The announcement came just a month after Drydocks World filed for insolvency protection in Dubai and Singapore in a move to restructure its $2.2 billion debt.
Drydocks World has unveiled a deal with BIG InvestConsult — which holds the technology rights to the project — to build an underwater hotel that looks like a series of massive discus plates joined by a network of undersea and above-water structures, including a helipad.
"The structure… elevates marine leisure facility to new unprecedented functional level," the Swiss company stated on its website. BIG is in talks with other investors and said it will fund the hotel.
"Drydocks and Maritime World is appointed as the exclusive main contractor for construction of the new concept hotels and cities floating in the Middle East," Drydocks said in a statement.
Dubai is home to palm-shaped and world-map-shaped reclamation projects, the world's tallest tower, an indoor ski slope and the world's longest driverless metro.
The Swiss firm said it aims build the underwater hotel off the coast of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of Drydocks World, told media persons that the company will fabricate the structures using techniques similar to building oil rigs based on seven design types — each costing between $50 million and $120 million (Dh183.5 million and Dh440.4 million).
The firms said two developments with five hotels attached to them are planned in the Middle East. It also aims to include a lab for marine environment research.
Well in its nature this structure is quite off the shelf engineering - redoing what was already achieved by Troll a and the Rion - Antirion Bridge Pylon - a series of tubular concrete structures that connect disc shapes - also the size of the discs does not exceed the 70m disc of the Rion-Antirion Pylon - The acrylics configuration resembles what is "of the shelf" in most modern Aquariums.
So nothing outlandish - just repeating what is concrete engineering practice in oil rig construction and bridge construction for tourism purpose...
A solution designed to provide a living space that ensures the survival of humans in open water in all possible conditions on the smallest possible scale is this.
The boat is "almost submersible" able to take a overwash from big storm and freak waves that might sink the mothership. No fancy deck spaces - the living space is inside a rigid shell protection is needed ...
The quality of "can take a wave overwash" is just another word for being able to stand short moments of being submerged.
So for living space in the high seas that can not count on 18m freeboard like a containership - being submersible is a design MUST - being submerged for short periods of time will be a real world status in certain ocean conditions - especially in conditions like shown in this video
So the submersible option should not be considered a "exotic option" any longer in the post draupner wave area.
It should be considered the "only safe and viable" option for ocean colonization for all structures with less then 18m freeboard.
Ships and Yachts have a safety plus by being able to stay out of the path of a severe storm - but any "not sufficient mobile structure" needs to be prepared to be submerged - on purpose or by accident.
-- Edited by admin on Saturday 7th of April 2012 04:11:29 PM
it is a failure in the "thought model" to assume that just because you install your private space in a hull with the capacity to submerge you are kind of obligated to live without surface contact - doing everything submerged. You still might opt to NOT submerge except in a 100 year storm where you will probably opt to do so for survival reasons.
A submersible living space bubble habitat blends nicely into the existing yacht ambients and can use all the existing infrastructure it is up to the owner if he preferes the life of a "normal yachtie" or of "captain nemo" both lifestyles are at hand ther is no "meet up limit" - on contrary - the remora and marmay tunnel connection will still work in a hundred year storm in open sea when surface floating structures must break up any kind of "gangway" between them.
Although we mght have underwater cities connected with underwater tunnels in a future - the first submerged living spaces will be mobile and operate in a normal yacht ambient more or less this way : living in a submerged bubble other than yachts that minimize ocean activites and maximize marina stay for comfort reasons, mobile submerged living space bubbles would extend gradually their activity spectrum to the open ocean as the comfort difference ocean/marina for the crew is minimal. It is just like settlement in the great plains - once you have a waggon (which is a technical solution for average joe to do so) and a reason to go for it (land, gold, oil, fish, mining) - settlement starts gradually beginning on the boarders extending farer out over time.
conclusion - there are existing engineering solutions like REMORA rescue sistem and segmented submerged tunnel construction - so it is basicly "off the shelf engineering".
Pictures: Remora / Marmay submerged tunnel
This means that scalability is still possible if a seasteading structure is submerged. If you check the details it is eaven easier to connect a thousand ton segment to a segmented submerged tunnel than a thousand ton hollow segment to a structure on land. Water allows a much better handling.
Capitain Nemo in Jules Vernes Novel was a hunter and collector, he might be a aquapod farmer, a mining prospector, a tourism operator, a trader, or a wreck salvage operator in real life... Wil concretesubmarine.com
Glass is a material that can stand hundreds of years at sea maintenance free, it can be strong (when laminated) impact resistant, - if you can get curved laminated panels cheap - is doubtful...
Glass has been used as pressure cover for oceanographic gear, as buoy for netting in the fishing industry. As bottle message for centuries - so it has a long record for surviving at sea in small structures - big marine structures made of glass has not yet been performed (i assume due to building cost). Combine concrete shell and glass to get the best of both worlds protection and transparency can be definitly an option.
The closest thing to a transparent bubble concept that i have knowledge of are those:
Houston dome, Eden project, ... they go with (ETFE) foil in aluminum frames - if this kind of bubble living space is strong enough to take a direct wave hit or submerge is doubthful so it might work as the cover of a big plate seastead where direct wave hits to the fragile transparent structure can be excluded. The picture in the middle above does not look like if direct wave hits to the transparent part can be excluded.
Acrylics is a high strength material that can take direct wave hits but acrylic domes are limited to a 6 foot diameter size and single panels of a few meter are the (expensive) stars of top aquariums - no way to do them in Building size nor city size.
A 6 foot acrylic dome can easyly cost 150.000 USD ... a panel like the picture above a million... seasteading will only happen if real estate costs in squaremeter floorspace are similar to land based real estate prices - this excludes the abundant use of exotic building materials and quantum leap engineering in a seastead very much.
So i fear we have to limit things to concrete shells for practical reasons... - what does not mean that the feel and style of such living space bubbles can not be light, futuristic and wave hit resistent at the same time.
As you see a diner plate of any size is a rigid structure (shell structure) that can be made thin walled and still hold a surprising amount of force. Plate shapes have been performed in concrete and floated out in industrial scale with diameters up to 70m. The engineering of building them and floating them out is "of the shelf". The building cost and technique is compareable to other civil engineering projects - so is their cost in squaremeter of living space. Slight variations like ring breakwater floating plates has also been successfully performed on industrial scale.
When we look for role models for bubble living space that can create comfort in the open ocean without the need of giant expensive platforms, we might be inspired by solutions that already exist as "exotic hotel" - below a futuristic snorkel seastead, a underwater hotel, underwater restaurant, massage room in the maledives, utter inn submerged hotel room and platform, survival pod hotel, igloo hotel.
Survival Pod Hotel
These bright orange mod pods anchored in The Hague were part of an art project before being capitalized on as adventurous getaway. Packages range from basic survival with a sleeping bag and food rations to something a bit more James Bond-esque.
The Hotel Kakslauttanen in Finland is in fact an Igloo Village, at which you can have your pick of 20 unique glass and snow igloos for your stay. They aren’t ice houses, but 31 well-maintained log cabins – built from a very special thermo glass that keeps them warmth and comfortable. Because of that, the temperature inside the Igloos is always a normal room temperature and the igloos inhabitants won’t feel any of the polar cold.
Alternative energy sources are much easier to get for small energy needs. So the living space bubble concept with its low propulsion energy need can open a door to experiment with alternative energy sources that would not be able to satisfy the need of hundreds of horsepower of a classic yacht.
I was thinking in current turbine solutions, pelamis wave generators, and similar sistems that extract the needed energy directly from the ocean.
I would not dismiss diesel as energy source - we could filter plankton or grow algea and convert them to biodiesel.
Stirling Engines could work with a wide range of different energy sources.
Basicly a family living in a semi/submerged living space bubble would consume less energy in comfort electrics than a average US household (no aircon need) and would need very little energy for cruising (similar to the whale model) - there would be no need to have oversized engines for safety reasons. So a microturbine or fuel cell solution could do the job completly and efficiently.
This is basicly where the oil/gas industry is going to - when the whole platform goes to hell - a life raft, a boat, is just not enough - they have completly enclosed living space bubbles that can take a direct wave hit, a drop from dozends of meters, a ride trough a oil patch on fire, submerged status, weeks of isolated drifting at sea - what ever the emergency situation may be - the last resource is always a bunker like bubble.
So why not install your home in such a safe bubble in first place . In the Netherlands a company offers a hotel stay in a "rescue pod hotel" - so "living in the pod" is not so exotic and out of normal after all - many people actually do it already.
... seasteads should take advantage of the horizontal space the ocean offers for free. So no highrise and no "deeprise" building is really required.
Water transport has always been a key factor in industrial development but it becomes increasingly important with globalization - factories already do follow the markets around the globe. At the moment they get built and dismantled in one country and built up again in another country. Your point that a seastead is the ONLY way to move your factory to Japan without even interupting the production is a MAYOR argument for seasteading. SAB-Miller is already considering floating factories to follow recources and markets. A seastead could be a factory a load terminal, a container port, a drydock, and a free trade zone, all in one handy package.
I am not a big fan of sending out a whole population of a city in inflatable floats on the open ocean in a hundred year storm - just remember the past evacuations of cities (New Orleans) and its practical application. People will always tend to stay in their houses. Also as the example of the fastnet race shows many of those floating out in inflatable rafts drowned although the yacht hull was found later without mast and keel but still floating. So why not think in a concept where the living space shell IS the rescue float and the safe room.
As you mentioned the dome shell house - make it a "bubble house" that can float for itself if necessary - even riped apart from a destroyed seastead - It would be like ants, living in a foam block, the living space bubbles would break apart just to stay afloat on their own.
You would have to make a couple of adaptions to your living space enclosure - windows like the egg shell - (small to take wave hits but you can have a LOT of them for a well lighed interior), a watertight entrance door.
The dome house is "almost there" and it is NOT a expensive living space. A plate seastead poblated with buoyant bubble houses would be a extremly safe seastead the rion-antirion pylon solved the engineering on large scale. Maybe a little more ship shaped for mobility. How deeploaded would you go - just a plate or a submerged skyscrapper?
The question is - once you go for a living space bubble for security reasons - why not scale down the seastead structure and go for a breakwater or a lagoon seastead where independent floating units (boats, houseboats, subs, floating living space of all kind) can have a "loose raft up" in open sea.