Floating cities – in pictures

As rising sea levels threaten low-lying nations around the world, floating cities are gaining political backing and some serious investment

• Has the time come for floating cities?

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  • Floating cities are nothing new. Tens of thousands of boat-dwellers formed a bustling district in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay – but the lack of garbage and sewerage facilities meant that when families were offered public housing on land in the 1980s, most chose this option
    Floating cities: in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, tens of thousands of sampan-dwellers formed a

  • But the concept of floating cities is back. Rotterdam's Rijnhaven waterfront development experiment is well under way
    Floating cities: Rotterdam has a Rijnhaven waterfront development experiment well under way

  • A floating village in London's Royal Docks has the official nodConcept design by Studio Egret West/image by AVR
    Floating cities: the proposed Floating Village in London's Royal Docks

  • Much of sprawling Makoko rests on stilts above Lagos Lagoon. Architect Kunlé Adeyemi proposes a series of floating A-frame houses to replace the existing slum, which is under threat of being razed by the authorities
    Floating cities: In Lagos, the sprawling slum of Makoko regularly suffers floods, and its st

  • In the 1960s Buckminster Fuller designed a floating city, Triton, for 100,000 residents and even had his plans approved by the US Navy
    Floating cities: In the 1960s, futurist Buckminster Fuller designed a floating city, Triton,

  • UK designer Phil Pauley has updated Fuller’s geodesic concept. A ring of spherical modules, SubBiosphere2 would float in fair weather, then submerge whenever the seas became roughIllustration: Pauley 2013
    Floating cities: UK designer Phil Pauley has updated Fuller’s geodesic concept. A ring of sp

  • Florida architect Jacque Fresco foresees a time when humans must colonise the sea to escape land made uninhabitable by overpopulation
    Floating cities: Florida architect Jacque Fresco's concept

  • The Seasteading Institute claims to be in active negotiations with potential host nations that would give political autonomy to the proposed floating villagesIllustration: Seasteading Institute
    Floating cities: The Seasteading Institute floating villages

  • Dutch engineering firm DeltaSync has proposed a modular building strategy for Seasteading cities, with movable parts which would allow for gradual financing and growth
    Floating cities: Dutch engineering firm DeltaSync has proposed a modular building strategy

  • A full-service floating city already exists for residents of The World, a 644-foot yacht that continuously circles the globe. Launched in 2002, the ship contains 165 condominium spaces that sell for millions
    Floating cities: The World, a 644-foot yacht

  • Freedom Ship would essentially be a mile-long flat-bottomed barge with a high-rise building on top. Weighing 3 million tonnes and with a top speed of 10 knots, the floating city would circle the globe every three yearsIllustration: Roger Gooch/FSI
    Floating cities: Freedom Ship would essentially be a mile-long flat-bottomed barge with a hi

  • High-speed ferries would connect the 40,000 residents and 20,000 crew to the mainlandIllustration: Roger Gooch/FSI
    Floating cities: Freedom Ship
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