Floating City Concept Adapts To Climate While Providing Cutting-Edge Healthcare

Japanese startup N-Ark has unveiled the concept for a groundbreaking floating island, dubbed Dogen City, that could provide cutting-edge medical care to residents while being able to adapt to the challenges of climate change.

The concept spans 390 acres with its “no-illness” neighborhood housing 40,000 residents at a time, made up of 10,000 permanent inhabitants and 30,000 tourists. It functions as a floating city in peacetime but can turn into a stand-alone island in the event of a natural disaster.

According to the firm, the circular layout, which resembles a floating disc, would be home to public housing, medical research centers, food manufacturers, and even special launch sites for rockets of the future.

Overall, the city would feature three main components. First, a “habitable ring” with living infrastructure. Shaped like a ring, this area could protect the inner bay area from the threat of tsunamis and rising ocean levels.

Secondly, a data center would be constructed underwater to provide the community with services such as urban management, healthcare data analysis, and drug research while cooling itself with the surrounding water in order to conserve energy.

Last but not least, the autonomous floating architecture could move freely within the inner bay, not tied to land constraints, which would allow for the island to reconfigure its setup depending on the functions it requires or the changing climate.

As for the smart healthcare focus of Dogen City, residents would be able to receive telemedicine daily by monitoring the state of their bodies through ring devices, blood samples, and even genome analysis.

Medical tourism would be one of its driving economies, while part of the island might focus on producing food using seawater agriculture and aquaculture complexes. Plus, the city could be open to hosting victims of natural disasters and climate refugees when called upon.

While it isn’t certain if Dogen City might truly come to life someday, the concept offers food for thought about how the world can be better designed to face climate challenges, such as the very real possibility of rising sea levels, head-on.

[via Robb Report and Zenbird, images via N-Ark]