Imagine a post-apocalyptic world populated with prefabricated buildings, manufactured on land from “memory metal” that can pop into shape when carried out to deep-ocean building sites. Frankly, sea cities are not that far-fetched in this day and age – except that the architect behind these dreams is now 92 years old and counting.

Living off the grid in sustainably-powered, self-sufficient homes, sea-steading … sounds like something perfectly suited as a response to emerging environmental issues. What were once the implausible Utopian ideals of a young architecture student named Jacques Fresco have evolved into the Venus Project, which seeks to address urban design and home-building issues on an ever-more-populated planet and in a changing global climate.

Much of what these oceanic future cities entail is not as technologically complex as it would have sounded to an early 20th-Century audience. “Homes could be prefabricated of a new type of pre-stressed, reinforced concrete with a flexible ceramic external coating that would be relatively maintenance free, fireproof, and impervious to the weather. Their thin shell construction can be mass-produced in a matter of hours. With this type of construction, there would be minimal damage from earthquakes and hurricanes.”

However, the Venus Project goes beyond design – it contains a vision for a cleaner world of peace, prosperity and unity, without even a monetary system as we know it. So is this kind of perfect-world thinking out of sync with the realism (or pessimism) of today? Perhaps so, or maybe we are just a little too jaded. Sometimes it is worth taking a step back and looking at the larger picture even if it seems impossible – designing without boundaries for a moment in anticipation of a world that is never fully built.

About the Venus Project

“The Venus Project is an organization that proposes a feasible plan of action for social change, one that works towards a peaceful and sustainable global civilization. It outlines an alternative to strive toward where human rights are no longer paper proclamations but a way of life.”

“We propose a fresh, holistic approach – one that is dedicated to human and environmental concerns. It is an attainable vision of a bright and better future, one that is appropriate to the times in which we live, and both practical and feasible for a positive future for all the world’s people.”