2100.org

Of course we will also probably have important technologies that will be launched in the next century. For example, we will have projects for building on the seas because technology is ready for such a step. Such new projects will increase food possibilities, will give way to water desalination, will see the use of communication through parabolas and satellites. Wind and solar energy will be captured as will be the energy of waves of the sea. People will be able to use modern technology to cultivate domestic plants in their city apartments. Technology is ready.

The most important new projects are currently coming from Asia, especially from Japan, where land is very expansive. Here we see a project, called aéropolis, a tower of 2001 metres high built for 300 000 people in a place where you have earthquakes. Here we have the example of a technical challenge. In front of Osaka Bay, half of the work has already begun. The project is to form a ring around the Osaka Bay with under water rings going from one platform to another and to the airport at the South of the city which is already built on the sea, the Kensaï Airport which already has costed 20 billion dollars. This project will be the first urban planning project on the sea. Pr Frankel from MIT says that it might be cheaper to build on the sea than to build on land because on land you have to co-ordinate and to bring the building materials to the site. When we go to the sea shore, the materials can be easily imported, we can construct automated factories and afterwards, when they are completed you can bring them directly to the sea site where they will be used. Thus it may be less expensive to build on the sea, than on the land. We will, therefore, have several of dozens of projects.

In 1995 there was a meeting in Monaco with representatives from all over the world to discuss the "Ocean Cities" Project. The participants were asked the question : " where do you see ocean cities being built in the next century ?" Here we see the map showing their replies. Most projects are in the Pacific ; however there are some also for Europe and in America. Afterwards the participants were invited to visit a French version of "Ocean cities" : Port Grimaud which you may know on the Mediterranean coast. The visitors, who were so used to visiting the very rational, Asian cities, took great pleasure in seeing this city devoted to the quality of life. So there is a prevailing idea in the world that we, Europeans, have a very high quality of life and that we have to, above all, maintain this quality because it represents a universal value. Because we are so accustomed to this quality life, we cannot appreciate its real value. People coming from the Far East appreciate it more than we do.