Fondation Jacques Rougerie
In fiction, floating cities are often imagined much like a normal city, buoyed with some type of flotation life raft or supported by steel beams connecting to the seafloor.
A design for the cruise ship of the future, called "The City of Meriens," does not look like that at all. It's more like a gigantic steel manta ray, which might just be the shape of things to come with regards to floating cities and luxurious cruise ships.
Its measurements would be 2,950 feet long and 1,650 feet wide. For comparison, the world's largest cruise ship, Royal Carribean's Allure of the Seas, is 1,187 feet long and measures only 213 feet at its widest point.
Maximum capacity aboard the Allure is 6,410 guests, but there's room for 2,384 crew members, bringing the sum total capacity to 8,794. Meriens would only hold 7,000 people, but without any cramped staterooms.
Fondation Jacques Rougerie
According to the designer behind Meriens, French architect Jacques Rougerie, its ideal use would be as a university research vessel, "a floating scientific city entirely dedicated to the observation and analysis of marine biodiversity," housing students and scientists with enough room to research, study, and recreate.
Meriens would be fully autonomous, using renewable marine energy producing zero trash. It would also have space on the outer edges of its wings for a hydroponic garden, and its centrally located lagoon would house aquaculture breeding farms.
