My crazy idea

[Ben BowmanSubscriber]

The strongest 3d shape in nature is a sphere. So why not base most of the structure from them. Geodesic spheres are fairly simple to construct and would make a pretty buoyant float. Balance would be a non-issue. Simply place ballast at the point you want to always be on bottom, then build the inside structure. The ballast could be anything from, just a large piece of steel to lots of batteries for storage of power. If every home had them, each home could be interlinked to share power and provide for everyone.

To keep costs low, I figured that making the main structure from plywood, and laminating with fiberglass and epoxy resin would be quite effective. Fiberglass lasts for years, and would be easily maintained for smaller buildings. Getting into large scale, it would probably be most effective to make the apartments, hotels, hospitals, office buildings and shopping centers out of concrete.

After building the sphere, I would make a deck around it. a large square about 2x the diameter of the sphere should suffice. Attach cables vertically on the outside of the sphere, and attach the cable to a pulley which is held onto the deck. I would add a heavy spring to the pulley to allow for a little more flexibility. I think the main thing would be to let the sphere and the deck move independently but still be attached.

Geodesic domes work great for greenhouses too. So for a home, or structure, you would simply need to make the sphere to meet the needs of the family. Larger domes could be constructed for greenhouses using the same principal except with clear walls. And even larger domes for businesses, research and hospitals, apartment/hotel complexes and such.

The outside of every structure could be fitted with solar panels with exception to the windows. Personally, I would like to see each deck outfitted with tidal generators below, and wind generators above. The largest structures placed on the outside of the city would alleviate some of the issues with waves bobbing small houses around like bath toys.

the Blue areas would be the large buildings, surrounding the greenhouses, which surround single family homes. Sorry for the CRAPPY quality… did it in about 3 mins with mspaint… hahaha. I wasn’t too worried about modeling it all out in 3d, cuz i suck at 3d modeling…

[Ben BowmanSubscriber]

well i guess I can’t edit my post… This is the picture

[ellmerSubscriber]

Floating concrete shell structures for ocean colonization

[ellmerSubscriber]

Ben, you might want to google up the terms “concrete shells, ocean colonization” or check the thread: “http://www.seasteading.org/forum-list/topic/open-ocean-capeable-living-space-bubble/”

[OCEANOPOLISSubscriber]

HMmmmm,…a sphere, again! I hate to blow your,…sphere, Ben, but your post is full of inaccurate (read-wrong) statements. A sphere would suck in a marine environment since no matter how much you gonna ballast it it will bob up and down on the waves instead of “cutting” into them. A sphere is hard to build, specially in plywood. Fiberglass won’t last for “years”, but for “few” years since it will blister and it is not at all “easily’ maintained. Plus, it’s expensive to built in fiberglass. Try ferrocement as Ellmer is pointing out.
And, as a rule of thumb, what works on dry land will suck @ sea.

[shredder7753Subscriber]

face. to the palm. yawn.

[Theodore SchultzSubscriber]

Geodesics? There may be just too many problems with geodesics. Don’t get me started. Perhaps the strongest shape in nature is the sphere, but you may be hard pressed to show me _geodesic_ spheres in nature. If you’ll study the works of Peter Jon Pearce, I think you’ll see that trunctated octahedra or rhombic dodecahedra would be more effective for what you’re trying to do than geodesic spheres.

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