XTU imagines living in the clouds to escape polluted air and an uninhabitable earth 

the year is 2050, earth has become uninhabitable due to rising temperatures, increasingly volatile weather and unbreathable air. in a bid to escape the overheated earth, humankind takes to the skies to live in the clouds — at least this a future envisioned by paris-based studio, XTU architects. 

displayed as part of mori art museum’s future and the arts: ai, robotic, cities, life – how humanity will live tomorrow exhibition in tokyo, XTU architects has shared renders and model images of their radical ‘x cloud’ concept. inspired by zeppelin cargo ships, the proposal imagines a series of massive networks composed of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of truncated octahedron 3D forms. together, they make up cloud-like super structures that are imagined to house cities of the future as they drift over earth. 

the project proposes an ‘architecture of aerostats’ that can hover in the earth’s atmosphere thanks to the use of helium gas to lift the structure, as it is less dense than the surrounding air. the x clouds are also designed to be autonomous, with their plankton greenhouses, moisture sensors and epiphyte forests, which cover the frameworks in vegetation and greenery. 

project info:

installation name: x cloud for how humanity will live tomorrow

design: XTU architects

exhibition: future and the arts: ai, robotic, cities, life – how humanity will live tomorrow

location: mori art museum, tokyo, japan

dates: 19 november 2019 – 29 march 2020

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynne myers | designboom