Will we ever live in cities underwater? The probability is high considering we live a planet with a growing population and climate ever...
Will we ever live in cities underwater? The probability is high considering we live a planet with a growing population and climate ever changing due to global warming. We live in an uncertain future where super typhoons, catastrophic floods and rising sea levels is fast becoming the new normal so it is not surprising that visionaries and architects alike are looking at the possibility of building new cities on and under the water.
We have to be prepared so that our cities on land won't suffer the same fate of the ancient cities of Tanis, Heraklion, Phanagoria, Shicheng, and Atlantis. When we run out of land, we go up or we have to go underwater. Many experts believe that going underwater could help alleviate growing overpopulation or anticipate the adverse effect of natural or man-made disasters that render land-based human life impossible.
The question, is it really viable and self-sustaining to live underwater?
Inside an gigantic transparent bubble, homes, schools, offices and even parks could be built using the water itself to make oxygen and generating hydrogen fuel in the process. But then again, self-sufficiency would be a challenging prospect. Under tremendous sea pressure, inhabitants must learned to adjust breathing on a delicate oxygen supply while taking carbon dioxide levels low.
Semi-submersible cities can be the transition point for us to go fully underwater but I think, the former is the more realistic model that we can possible achieve. Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut's Aequorea project imagines a self-sufficient, spiraling "oceanscrapers" reaching to the sea floor from mangrove-covered marinas on the surface of the world's oceans.
Whatever the model is being followed in the underwater cities of the future, it all boils down to livability. Can we live the same way as we live on land?
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