Architect Dreams Up Lilypad: Floating City Ark for Eco-Refugees

Remember I wrote about the floating home solution that Dutch builders are using to counteract rising sea levels? Architect Vincent Callebaut has started with that idea, and taken it much further down the archeology-meets-ark route, and created Lilypads: floating eco-cities. Each 50,000-person pad is a designed as a zero-emission floating home that uses solar, wind, tidal and biomass power to generate energy for its inhabitants. Plus it’s got a titanium dioxide skin that helps it tackle rising atmospheric CO2. It’s a fantasy right now, but rising sea levels may one day tempt builders to take on mega structures like this… just keep Kevin Costner away from the project, is all I’m saying. [Freshome via Inhabitat]