Without dramatic reductions in greenhouse emissions, it is estimated that up to 300 million people across the world will be at risk of annual coastal flooding by 2050. One company looking to combat the effects of climate change and stay on top of rising sea levels is the Japanese design firm N-Ark. It has proposed creating Dogen City, a hugely ambitious smart healthcare floating city with a two-layer design. The top will house a self-sufficient maritime city, while the undersea layer will feature a sea-cooled data center for city management, healthcare and drug discovery.
Floating City Offers Though-Provoking Vision for the Future of Urban Living
The project is still in the conceptual stage and there’s a good chance it will never come to fruition. Whether it does or not, though, it certainly offers a thought-provoking vision of the future of urban living. The goal is to create a resilient and adaptable urban environment that provides an alternative to land-based cities. Instead of fighting against the rising tides, N-Ark’s floating city will be designed to adapt to changing water levels. It is being proposed as a solution to help protect vulnerable areas from the effects of coastal erosion, increased flood frequency and saltwater intrusion.
According to N-Ark’s homepage, Dogen City will measure approximately 1 mile (1.58 kilometers) in diameter and about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in circumference. It will be able to accommodate around 10,000 residents, plus around 30,000 visitors at a time. There will be schools, hospitals, offices, sports areas, parks and food production facilities. A circular structure, N-Ark says it will be designed to withstand extreme weather conditions and even tsunamis. It has also proposed building a spacecraft launch site. There has yet to be any announcement regarding a potential location or the likely cost of the project. The company is aiming to have it completed by 2030.
Floating City Projects Around the World
There are several floating city projects either underway or being planned around the world. This includes Oceanix Busan in South Korea, which reportedly has a scalable design that will allow for future expansion to house up to 100,000 people.The aim is for the ambitious city to be ready before 2030. The floating city in the Maldives, meanwhile, is starting to take shape. The city, which will consist of 5,000 units including homes, restaurants, shops and schools, is expected to be completed by 2027.
