When climate change allows oceans to wash over the lands we once called home, you’re going to want to immigrate to one of the ecopolises that Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut created for his LILYPAD concept project. Callebaut’s cities will float on the oceans swollen by the water from melted icebergs, and produce their own foodstuffs for up to 50,000 people whose homes are stacked inside “hills” where plants are grown.
With a sunken lagoon at its center, the LILYPAD can also produce energy for coastal cities, via a combination of solar, thermal and photovoltaic energies, plus wind and tidal power.
The idea is to create a planned city, with regions devoted to work, shopping, and living. Its shape is based on an Amazonian lilypad, and the central freshwater lagoon acts as ballast, keeping the city stable.
People would live along walkways on those hills, as well as in and below them.
Here is what the hundreds of atolls in the Maldives might look like after climate change submerges most of the land and LILYPADs replace islands. LILYPAD: A Floating Ecopolis [via Archinect]
