estudio focaccia prieto plans floating city that cleanses the ocean

estudio focaccia prieto plans to urbanize the ocean

As the Earth’s temperatures continue to soar, melting the ice caps and rapidly rising the sea levels, many countries have already begun to urbanize the sea to prevent themselves from becoming submerged under water like modern day ‘atlantises’. Following in the footsteps of South Korea’s Buzan project and Saudi Arabia’s Oxagon, Estudio Focaccia Prieto proposes Polimeropolis — a giant cluster of floating cities enclosing lagoons of uncontaminated ocean water to offer a new sustainable ecosystem of habitation.

Creating a metropolis in the depths of the Great Pacific Ocean, the project plans to cleanse the heavily polluted continental Garbage Patch with a sustainable self-contained city built from recycled plastic it captures itself. Polimeropolis also generates clean electricity and water on-site with renewable systems. Lead architects Juan Manuel Prieto and Clara Focaccia present their visualisations through a series of Midjourney-generated drone shots made in collaboration with AI artist Maxi Araya.

all images by Juan Manuel Prieto and Maxi Araya

habitable rings enclose clear lagoons and capture waste

Polimeropolis proposes the urbanization of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with a series of giant floating islands that clean up the ocean. Presented as a scalable staged model of a city, the conceptual project comprises a sequence of mixed-use urban ‘rings’, each of which houses a cluster of habitats while enclosing a huge oceanic lagoon. Encircling the islands, the team at Estudio Focaccia Prieto creates a waste-collecting boundary made of nets and vegetation associated with phytoremediation, which restrict the passage of micro plastics and purify the water. This achieves a sanitized environment where both marine and human life can flourish.

A giant floating island that cleans up the ocean and ‘prevents us from drowning in our own garbage,’ Polimeropolis is to be primarily constructed from recycled plastic residue its finds in the water. The waste will be crushed and compacted in situ in floating factories dedicated to producing the components of an entirely recycled construction system. Further, entirely self-sufficient, the ringed cities will generate their own resources; tidal movement will generate electrical energy while reverse osmosis will create potable water. Food production will also be based on the cultivation of marine flora and fauna in the enclosed lagoons.

Estudio Focaccia Prieto proposes a ringed cluster of urbanized island

a sustainable floating city made of recycled pollution

Each of these cities are mixed-use urban areas, housing around four thousand residents alongside hosting productive and commercial areas for leisure and amenities. As the urbanization develops, there will be islands dedicated to parks and recreation, airport and marina, and hotel resorts for ecotourism where people will be able to visit and learn about the systems used for the garbage island’s sanitation.

‘This project is a call to action to rethink the way we produce, consume, and dispose of things, promoting a circular economy that seeks to close the loops of material flows and prioritize the reuse and recycling of resources. It is a proposal for a new paradigm of urbanization that seeks to reconcile the needs of the human species with the conservation and respect for the environment. It not only addresses the problems caused by the overproduction of garbage, but also creates a new ecosystem and way of life,’ notes Juan Manuel Prieto.

a boundary made of nets and vegetation restricts the passage of micro plastics and purifies the water