The Private Islands Blog » Man made islands

Floating Island Pool

The Islomaniac® — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:23:59 +0000

On islands like Manhattan space comes at a premium and often large recreational centres like public swimming pools are the first things to be sacrificed. However if everything goes “swimmingly” Manhattan could soon become home to one of the worlds first floating swimming pools. Part swimming pool, part man made island, this floating pool concept could be providing summer respite to heat weary New Yorkers as soon as next summer pending final approvals. The best part of the project is it is completely sustainable taking dirty east river water and purifying it, making it safe for swimming.

The Pool team still needs funding to make it a reality. Specifically, they need to raise $25,000 to begin physical tests of the filtration materials and methods by July 15th. With even more funding they can test and develop even more, and they expect it’ll take $500,000 to build a full-scale mockup of one of the parts of the swimming pool. As with any Kickstarter donation, the team will reward you with various goodies based on the size of your gift. More donations mean the faster this concept has a chance of becoming a reality.

Source:

NOAH: A Floating Home for New Orleans

The Islomaniac® — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:00:39 +0000

After the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, designers and engineers began working together to developa plan to keep the residents of the Big Easy safe during times of flooding. One idea being proposed is a giant floating building called NOAH, which stands for New Orleans Arcology Habitat.

The habitat boasts 20,000 residential units as well as 3 hotels and 500 timeshare units. Also housed within its triangular walls is loads of commercial space, 8000 parking spaces as well as cultural spaces, public works and schools. The idea is that you could live your whole life in NOAH if you so chose.

In addition to using solar and wind power to support the structure, given its location on the water the building would also use water turbines to generate power. No doubt it would be quite the floating structure…if it is ever built!

Floating eco-village for Haiti

The Islomaniac® — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 05:00:35 +0000

After the tragic earthquake in Haiti last year many engineers and designers are looking for ways to prevent this disaster from happening again. One amazing alternative housing concept that has been proposed comes from world famous architect Vincent Callebaut. His coral reef design is a floating housing concept designed to house up to 1,000 Haitian families. Built upon seismic piers off the coast of the mainland, the prefabricated, modular units can be fit into a wave-like matrix as space is needed. Each family would have a plot of land to grow their own food, and their passive home would minimize energy usage, while renewable energy sources would make the entire project carbon neutral.

Source: Inhabitat

King’s Island Denmark

The Islomaniac® — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:30:35 +0000

Created in 1890 by King Christian the IX is an incredible and historic piece of property.

The island is actually the largest artificial island, not connected to the mainland in the world. This rare offering is a unique gem of tremendous cultural importance.

Located just 15 minutes from the danish capital the island is home to an expansive fortress which is protected under Danish Law. In recent years the island has served as hotel, conference centre and seminary. The fortress features 200 rooms and almost 4km of hallways. The fortress itself is constructed from solid granite.

The island is currently on the market for 10 million Euros. For more information on this rare offering visit Private Islands Online.

Underwater Ocean Dwelling

The Islomaniac® — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:51:47 +0000

Although living on a private island is the ultimate way to live on the open seas, in the not too distant future people may be living on private islands but man made structures located below the water. One new proposal by UK-based designer Phil Pauley envisions a biosphere set in the ocean that would create a self-sustaining underwater habitat for aquanauts, tourists, and oceanographic life sciences. Made up of submersible spheres, the structure dubbed Sub Biosphere 2 would maintain and support life while acting as a secure underwater seed bank.

The large self-sustaining system can float on top of the water or submerge and travel along rails all the way to the ocean floor.

Futuristic Floating City

The Islomaniac® — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 05:32:19 +0000

If global warming continues and scientists predictions are correct are many of our children and great grand children may find themselves living on self-sustaining floating island cities.

One of the newest floating islands is a complex proposed by the Shimzu corporation. This completely self sufficient floating ecotopia that is covered in vegetation, generates its own power, grows food, manages waste, and provides clean water.

Designed for the equatorial pacific, presumably near Japan, the island is a concept for a series of floating islands with eco skyscraper cities, where people live and work. The islands are connected together to form modules and a number of modules grouped together form a “country” of roughly 1 million people.

A 1,000 m tower in the center of the island acts as both a vertical farm as well as a skyscraper with residential, commercial and office space. The green space, the beach, and the water terminal on the flat plane of the island are all within walking distance. Energy for the islands would be generated from renewable sources like solar, wind, and ocean thermal.
Read more: Futuristic Floating City is an Ecotopia at Sea | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Fake Islands to Fend off Oil

The Islomaniac® — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:12:37 +0000

Artificial islands are being proposed as a means to help halt the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. As news surfaced that the giant cap meant to contain the spill failed, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced his own plan to save the coastline from mass amounts of incoming oil. Jindal is proposing “strengthening” a line of delicate barrier islands 10 miles off the coast of Louisiana by dumping dredged materials in the gaps of water that stretch between the small pieces of land. He hopes his plan would stop oil from reaching the marshlands on the coast of Louisiana.

Floating Islands in the Maldives

The Islomaniac® — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 05:52:35 +0000

Floating Island in Maldives

A low lying island nation, the Maldives is at the front line in the fight against global warming. Already facing damage from rising sea levels, the Maldives is facing a grim future if action is not taken immediately.

Refusing to go gently into the good night, Maldives is fighting back with plans to build a series of man-made artificial islands. Maldives government and Dutch Docklands/Dutch Watervalley recently signed an agreement to develop several floating facilities for the islands, including a convention center and golf courses.

Designed by architect Koen Olthuis or Waterstudio.NL, the renderings for the amphibious mini-cities appear depict star-shaped, tiered islands with indoor spaces hidden under lush green-roof terraces, complete with interior pools and beaches. While exact design details of these new floating islands are still unavailable, Dutch Docklands does have a history of creating water developments using methods and procedures that reduce impact on underwater life and minimize changes to coastal morphology.

Underwater Skyscraper: A Self Sufficient City

The Islomaniac® — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 05:10:27 +0000

Upside down, self sufficient, floating island cities. The future will no doubt be an interesting place to be, where potentially millions of people will be pseudo-islomaniacs.

Touted as a self-sufficent floating city, Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum’s Water Scraper utilizes a variety of green technologies. It generates its own electricity using wave wind, and solar power and it produces its own food through farming, aquaculture, and hydroponic techniques. The surface of the submerged skyscraper sustains a small forest, while the lower levels contain spaces for its inhabitants to live and work. The building is kept upright using a system of ballasts aided by a set of squid-like tentacles that generate kinetic energy.

The architects “envision a future where land as a resource will be scarce; it is only natural progression that we create our own. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, even more if climate change has its way, hence it is only natural progression that we will populate the seas someday.”

Source: Inhabitat.

: Underwater floating sky scraper

Become a Castaway: How to Rent a Private Island

The Islomaniac® — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:07:51 +0000

It seems like every day there is a new article on island ownership somewhere in the world. Similarly there are often travel articles on unique island destinations. Rarely however is there an article written about renting your own Private Island. The Sydney Morning Herald recently published an article about the joys of renting your own island

The article notes that there are islands available all over the world from Canada to the Mediterranean to the South Pacific, and each island is unique, some are affordable, some are economical, some are environmentally friendly and some are truly unique (i.e. islands with castles, lighthouses and prisons). Here is what the author has to say.

Others are celebrity-friendly. At the Mayan-themed Nygard Cay in the Bahamas, famous guests have included Sean Connery, Robert De Niro and Oprah Winfrey and the nightly rate of $US42,000 ($46,000) includes Hummer or limo transfers from Nassau.

To read the full article and learn more about island rentals visit The Sydney Morning Herald.