Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Sea City 2000 (1979)


Today we have more from the great book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century.

The Sea City 2000 shows some great paleo-future technology such as the dish-shaped antenna that "beams microwave energy, generated by solar cells, to a receiver on the nearby coast."

The bottom right corner shows a Buckminster Fuller design for a floating community. His design includes shops, schools and homes for 5,000 people.

See also:
The Future World of Transportation
Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century
Ristos (1979)

23 comments:

Paul M. Cray said...

This particular spread influenced be profoundly. The capital of the World Community in my tweenage future history was an artificial island, inspired by the arcology described here, located in the Pacific at 0oN, 180oW. (Howland Island, the nearest land, 384 km ENE of the spot might make a more sensible nucleus for the city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howland_Island).

kickstand said...

The city of the future is here ... only it's not in the US. It's Dubai.

Dubai is Nuts

Anonymous said...

Where's the zoom in of me in my boxers, casually perusing internet pornography from the comfort of my wireless computer?

Anonymous said...

As a kid, I dreamt my dreams through this book. Now I wake, wondering when the world will catch up.

Mikunter said...

I remember reading these books as a kid too... whatever happened to the future? Economics and self interest.

duran said...

Oh thats awesome. As a child (some 15 years ago, my god, I'm old) I had access to that book in my library, it was one of the books I always went to when ever we went there in elementary school.

Thanks for reminding me about it!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I still have this book!

Anonymous said...

Kind of looks like the Luxor Hotel and Casino. I still don'see Alec, though.

Unknown said...

kickstand has already mentioned it. Its Dubai (and abu dhabi maybe ;) The parallel concept is there.

Unknown said...

I would much rather see a city UNDER the ground.

http://www.bloggingwv.com

Anonymous said...

Didn't this appear on Discovery Channel? Is in China I think. It hasn't been build yet, because of technological barriers, but there are plans and all.

r2d2rigo said...

LOL! I still have the book where that image comes from sitting somewhere. Good old times...

Unknown said...

Always love these water cities. With so much coastal development it is surprising there haven't been more attempts to try something like this.
freethefuture.com

Anonymous said...

I remember when the American dream was alive and well. As a youth I was inspired by what I read and what we were taught. Today my son is fed a steady diet of how we're killing the earth, over populating it, poluting it, technology is bad blah blah blah.
When a generation gives up on it's realization of a better future for all and quits pushing technological boundaries I can't help but feel that the end is near.

Anonymous said...

It looks pretty cool, but how is something that heavy supposed to float? And what happens when somebody gets Norovirus? Imagine what happens when people on a cruise ship get Norovirus. It spreads to everybody. Imagine a virus like that spreading on this thing.

Anonymous said...

Check out "Cities In Flight" an old book by James Blish, where many earth cities like NY have lifted off and travel through space as independent business units. Many similar concepts including asteroid mining but on a gigantic scale.

Anonymous said...

what about the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas?

Anonymous said...

This is for the year 2000 and Sim City 2000 had archologies.....do you think?....

Anonymous said...

Reminds me a bit of the Millennial Project's visions for a floating city at sea. I do so miss these optimistic visions of the future. The modern environmental movement has turned dystopian prognostication into a fine art.

Anonymous said...

No doubt it is a Soviet city. Only in crazy times of Soviet Union such projects were really possible to be put into action.

Anonymous said...

Japan's Shimizu Corp. has proposed building such a structure in Tokyo Bay.

If built, the Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid would comprise 55 smaller pyramids, each the size of the Luxor in Las Vegas, and would stand 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid in Giza.

Further info:

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/pyramidcity/interactive/interactive.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
MarkS said...

main industries: fish farming, undersea mining, and soylent green production.