Floating cities – in pictures

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 Photograph: Matthew Wellings/Alamy

But the concept of floating cities is back. Rotterdam's Rijnhaven waterfront development experiment is well under way Photograph: Leuntje/Alamy

A floating village in London's Royal Docks has the official nod
Concept design by Studio Egret West/image by AVR

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 Photograph: Jon Gambrell/AP

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

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 rough
Illustration: Pauley 2013

Florida architect Jacque Fresco foresees a time when humans must colonise the sea to escape land made uninhabitable by overpopulation Photograph: Jacque Fresco/The Venus Project

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

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

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 Photograph: PR

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 years
Illustration: Roger Gooch/FSI

High-speed ferries would connect the 40,000 residents and 20,000 crew to the mainland
Illustration: Roger Gooch/FSI