Floating Ecologies and the Whale

Imagine, seas and rivers occupied with a population of meandering creatures, charged by sunlight and currents creating both man and wildlife mobile habitats, all cleaning our water bodies through bio-filtration.

Architect Vincent Callebaut proposes such an idea in the Physalia, a self-sufficient whale-shaped floating ecosystem which cleans water as it travels through bio-filtration. Inspired by the Physalia physalis jellyfish, the design is intended to by powered by photovoltaic panels and hydro-turbines.

Instantly several adaptations come to mind. Why not extend these concepts to other water-based transports. Slow-moving cargo ships and oil tanker transports are transformed into giant floating ecosystems, cleaning our water while maintaining their purpose. Giant cruise vessels transform from a system of excess and over-consumption to becoming floating utopian-esque tropical ecologies. More eco-tourism then Carnival cruise.

 

This even could be a prelude to a floating housing concept in response to the impending water level rise. Floating around like algae, our homes and neighborhoods in constant fluctuation, changing demographics and social order/hierarchy, your enemy one day could be your neighbor the next. All of this happening while intensely sucking carbon from the air.

+via Inhabitat

Comments

[Sen Lee]

Completely inefficient. It's both inefficient to build and according to the article, "floats". ... good luck getting anywhere. Also, I would trust an engineer to not mix up their "Their" and "There".

"Slow-moving cargo ships and oil tanker transports are transformed into giant floating ecosystems, cleaning our water while maintaining there purpose."

[Adam E. Anderson]

Sen,

The purpose of the post has nothing to do with efficiency at this point. Ideas at their inception do not need to be completely utilitarian. What a boring world we'd live in if every thought went straight to efficiency.

This as an idea, a concept, a starting point to possibly something else. And it does "float", but is propelled by hydro-turbine engines powered by solar energy. So, conceptually, it could get somewhere.

Thanks for pointing out the spelling error. Corrected.

[EK]

The design looks like two of the buildings of Calatrava in the City of the Arts and the Sciences (in Valencia) combined. Furthermore its funny that the above-mentioned buildings lay in an old riverbed and now this is put in a river.
The pictures and the idea is nice though.