Whether it’s adventure or necessity that ultimately propels us to venture beyond our shores and build new communities in the sea, we’ve got plenty of space to work with: over 70% of the Earth is covered with water. The world’s oceans can provide a dreamy setting for all manner of submerged societies, from self-sustaining utopian cities to ultra-modern inverted ‘skyscrapers’ and museums. These 12 ideas range from science fiction to theoretically achievable projects, possibly leading to the world’s first permanent aquatic abode.

Sub Biosphere 2

(images via: phil pauley)

Imagine an entirely self-contained city that could go practically anywhere as the need arose – from floating on the surface of the ocean, to hidden in the depths. Sub Biosphere 2 is a concept for a submerged city featuring eight live/work/farm biomes surrounding a large central biome containing all necessary equipment to keep the city running. Theoretically, with enough notice and supplies, Sub Biosphere 2 – which is also a seed bank – could survive everything from a hurricane to a nuclear war.

The Gyre – A Floating Skyscraper

(images via: zigloo.ca)

Technically, the Gyre isn’t a floating skyscraper – it’s more like a seafloor-scraper. Rather than reaching high into the air, the tip of the Gyre descends 400 meters under the ocean’s surface from a floating platform with four arms that buoy the building and create harbors for massive ships. The Gyre, powered by the solar, wind and wave energy, would house a research station and a resort complete with shops, restaurants, gardens, parks and entertainment.

Jellyfish-Inspired Ocean City for Australia

(images via: design boom)

Some ocean cities aim not to look like a modern metropolis that has simply been submerged, but like part of the ecosystem of the sea. The beautiful ‘Syph’, a jellyfish-inspired Ocean City concept for Australia, proposes not buildings but ‘organisms’ that each have a specialized task like producing food or housing residents. Designed by Arup Biometrics for the ‘Now + When Australian Urbanism’ competition, this concept has a flowing elegance that’s fitting for its environment.

Trilobis 65 Underwater Home

(images via: sub-find.com)

Not everyone is eager to pack into densely populated underwater skyscrapers and housing complexes, whether more of us live under the sea as a novelty or by necessity. Some deep-pocketed lovers of luxury may choose partially submerged abodes that are a variation of modern-day yachts. The round Trilobis 65 features an ‘observation bulb’ that provides a 360-degree view at a cost of just $4-5 million.

Amsterdam’s Underwater Future

(images via: treehugger)

Amsterdam has been dealing with a multiplying population and a shortage of land, a problem that will only get worse if the seas rise with global warming. While many forward-thinking architects have proposed a floating future for Amsterdam, this proposal would take certain functions of the city beneath sea level. Moshé Zwarts believes that draining canals, building under them and then re-filling them could provide space for parking, shopping and leisure.

Water-Scraper Self-Sufficient Floating City

(images via: evolo.us)

Like a combination of the Gyre and Australia’s ‘Syph’, the Water-Scraper is an inverted underwater skyscraper but also employs some stunning biomimicry. Designer Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum of Malaysia says “Its bioluminescent tentacles provide sea fauna a place to live and congregate while collecting energy through its kinetic movements.”

Hydropolis Hotel

(images via: builder blog)

It was supposed to be the world’s first underwater hotel, a massive 220-suite structure with a submarine ‘leisure complex’, an above-water land station and a tunnel connecting the two. But the Hydropolis Hotel was just a bit to ambitious of a project for the worldwide economic troubles of 2008-2010, even for Dubai, and though construction was set to start anytime, the project has been shelved.

Poseidon Undersea Resort

(images via: one nation)

Now that Hydropolis is off the table, Fiji’s Poseidon Undersea Resort really will nab the title of ‘world’s first underwater hotel’ – maybe. The resort was first supposed to open in 2008, but got pushed back to early 2010, which didn’t happen either.  It’s unclear whether construction has even begun. But if it does ever become a reality, the resort will offer 24 suites on the floor of a 5,000-acre lagoon with stunning views for a fee of $30,000 per couple per week.

Alexandria’s Underwater Museum

(image via: national geographic)

Few people ever get a glimpse of the remnants of ancient Alexandria, long since sunken into the Mediterranean Sea. But all the treasures discovered by divers in the 1990s, including 26 sphinxes, could be visible to the public if the world’s first underwater museum ever gets built. The partially above-water museum would feature four sail-shaped structures representing the points on a compass, and would keep the ruins underwater to follow the UNESCO convention of preservation of underwater heritage. A team is still trying to determine how to build around such priceless artifacts without disturbing them.

Minnesota’s Secret Underwater City

(images via: io9)

Since 1996, people have been mesmerized by online accounts of a “secret underwater city” not under the sea in some exotic location, but deep within the Minnesota River. The “official Mankato, MN web page” has even lured tourists in with  stories about an ancient city dating back to about 4,000 B.C., confirmed by “world famous astrogeologist Seymour Bottoms.” Getting the drift yet? The page was created by a professor at Minnesota State University to show his students that you can’t believe everything you hear on the internet – and yes, it has definitely resulted in some very disappointed and confused tourists.

Bioshock’s Underwater City of Rapture

(images via: the next side)

It never was and never will be a reality, but one of the most stunning underwater cities ever imagined is actually from a video game. The city of ‘Rapture’, from the game Bioshock 2, is entirely submerged somewhere off the coast of Iceland. Initially built as a utopian refuge from the post-World-War-II world, it fell victim to unrest from within, and it is the abandoned Rapture that gamers get to explore. This image is one of several by concept artist Tim Warnock depicting Rapture in all of its initial Art Deco glory.

R’lyeh, Home of Cthulu

(images via: john coulthart)

Long before any of the other undersea cities and buildings on this list were ever dreamed up, H.P. Lovecraft’s vision of R’lyeh was the most fascinating submerged metropolis since Atlantis. Illustrator John Coulthart brought it to frightening life in this incredible work of art, reminding us that undersea living isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

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The inescapable cycle of life, death and decay will have its way with us all, and virtually everything else on earth… and while most people find this reality of nature less than pleasant, others seek to magnify and exploit it. Because while decay can certainly be disgusting – as some artists have portrayed with rotting animals – it can also be beautiful, like allowing the sea to etch a pattern into metal.

Dieter Roth

(images via: MOMA)

No collection of decay-themed art would be complete without the inclusion of Dieter Roth, whose entire oeuvre challenged the notion that art is immortal. Bananas, sausage and dung are just a few of the items Roth used to create pieces that blossomed with maggots and mold, falling victim to the relentless cycle of life and death even under the harsh lights of exclusive art galleries. Certainly the bust of chocolate that he made of himself, covered in birdseed and threw into a courtyard as a feast for birds looks very different than it did when he created it.

Dan Dempster

(image via: wikimedia commons)

The sea is a great and mysterious artist, carving rocks and scouring patterns into sunken man-made objects with its relentless tides and currents. Bermuda artist Dan Dempster submerged pieces of steel into the ocean and let it etch patterns into the surface with a rusty, dreamy and utterly aquatic result.

Nathan Slate Joseph

(images via: sundaram tagore gallery)

Many artists whose work is displayed outdoors dread the process of weathering; they lacquer and protect their work as much as possible to defend it against fading, rust, and other hazards of wind and rain. But Nathan Slate Joseph intentionally leaves squares of steel outdoors to “empower nature by allowing it to have a hand in the making of his art.” He even applies acids to facilitate the breakdown of the pigments he applies to each square, letting them age and change naturally before soldering them together into one cohesive piece.

Damien Hirst

(images via: my modern met)

Renowned British artist Damien Hirst is known for making death a central theme in nearly all of his works, the most notable – and controversial – of which being a series made from animal corpses. One work featuring a rotting cow and bull was banned from gallery exhibition by New York public health officials for fear of “vomiting among the visitors”. Another, “A Thousand Years”, consisted of a rotting cow’s head in a glass case, covered in maggots and flies. But not all of Hirst’s dead animals are left to the ravages of nature – some are preserved in formaldehyde, like his iconic (and somehow simultaneously iconoclastic) shark.

Tony Reason

(images via: tonyreason.com)

Rust is a powerful pigment, with its vivid hues of red and orange that it lends to all sorts of metals, whether desired or not. British artist Tony Reason must see a great beauty in rust, because he has made it the center of much of his work: giant metal panels with rust designs and even rust mixed with wax and painted on canvas.

Kathy Kelley

(image via: artslant)

Few artists enjoy being told that their work looks like a bunch of trash – but Kathy Kelley knows that that’s exactly what her sculptures are. Kelley, who holds an MFA in graphic design, turned to “revaluing objects of refuse” with her large-scale found-object sculptures, saying “I am drawn to the symbolic and formal elements of decay, the way in which an object has been altered by its mere existence. The worn, broken, torn nature of the aged object seems to make it more real, more honest. So I collect decayed urban refuse. I hold onto it for awhile. Cogitate. Eventually the formal and symbolic elements of the materials and my current research meld. Then I make.”

Matthew Barney & Elizabeth Peyton

(images via: c-monster)

Take one dead shark a la Damien Hirst, throw in some drawings that have been embellished by the sea over a period of a few months a la Dan Dempster, and you’ve got the strange collaborative project “The Blood of Two” by artists Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton.  Some of Peyton’s nautical-themed drawings were placed in a glass casket which was submerged in the ocean for months; the casket was ceremoniously lifted from the sea and taken on a funeral-like procession to a slaughterhouse where the drawings were removed and replaced with a dead shark. The shark was later served to onlookers. Barney is also known for his performance art videos featuring sculptures made from uncooked tapioca, which were left to decay as they would.

Rosamond Purcell

(images via: zymmogyphic)

Did you ever imagine that a dead fish could be so beautiful? Rosamond Purcell collects such natural and man-made curiosities for her assemblage art, which pays tribute to decay in all forms, from the remains of dead creatures to worm-eaten books and rusted metal. Purcell sources most of her materials at a junkyard in Maine and turns them into art installations, sculptures, collages and other collections as documented in her book Bookworm: The Art of Rosamond Purcell.

Joseph Beuys

(images via: 2thewalls)

Artist Joseph Beuys worked with all sorts of unconventional materials, but they were never randomly chosen. Beuys used edible items like butter, sausage and chocolate in some works, knowing that they would transform and decay over time, changing the way that people reacted to each piece. Fat in particular played a large role, used to signify “chaos and the potential for spiritual transcendence”. The images above show how the work ‘Fat Chair’, which featured a triangular slab of butter on a wooden chair, evolved as it decayed.

Zhang Xiaotao

(images via: saatchi gallery)
Perhaps hang Xiaotao’s art isn’t made directly from putrefying objects, but nearly as unusual is the desire to produce art that holds up decay as a subject worth portraying again and again. Xiaotao depicts moldy strawberries, rotting birthday cake, heaps of trash in the subway and ants feasting on forgotten food as lovingly as if they were stunning landscapes and beautiful models. “I am creating something that is disappointing and yet has great hopes – a cycle of positive and negative energy that is in a constant state of renewal,” he told China Daily.

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These odd circles may look like messages from aliens or the humorous graffiti of penguins, but it’s actually the ephemeral snow and ice art of earth artist Jim Denevan, best known for his temporary beach masterpieces. The snow circles are somewhat of a departure from Denevan’s usual medium, but he’s no stranger to large-scale natural art. This nine-square-mile snow drawing currently holds the record as the world’s largest snow drawing; the record before that belonged to a sand drawing created in the Nevada desert by Denevan.

Jim Denevan’s art is all about impermanence. His large-scale artworks are meant to exist only for very short periods of time, after which they will be washed away by waves, wind and weather. This massive art was created on Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal, the world’s largest lake.

Because of the constant threat of losing the entire piece to a sharp gust of wind, a team of helpers assisted in the creation of the gigantic masterpiece. Eight people in all got out onto the ice and used brooms to sweep the snow into simple, elegant circles. The work was chronicled on The Anthropologist, a site that features new artwork for Anthropologie.

The crew slept in a yurt on the ice, warming themselves by a fire in the lake bed that re-froze each morning in the brutal temperatures. The expedition was filmed by a documentary filmmaker and captured by a photographer; both of these documentation methods are necessary when creating art in a medium as temporary as ice.

The tundra warmed up, Lake Baikal thawed, and Jim Denevan’s lovely circles melted away forever. But the artist isn’t losing any sleep over his lost masterpiece; his goal is to create beautiful and inspiring pieces of art that only exist for a moment in time. His ephemeral art reminds us all to savor every day, to find beauty in even the most fleeting moment.

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“Women . War . Peace’ will be a new and exciting war museum with the pure focus of Women and War,” says Wilson.  “Journeying through the exhibition will illustrate the compassion, realism, horrors and bravery seen and felt through the eyes of women during war time, both on the front-line and behind the scenes. This museum interrogates the creativity of learning through emotional and experiential spaces and details.”

Four stages of war will be represented within the reclaimed bunker: past, present, reflection and remembrance, and future. In the ‘Past’, the main exhibition stage, museum visitors will learn the stories of ‘women at war’, told within the bunker walls, and ‘women at home’, displayed in spaces outside but connected to the bunker space. The ‘Present’, located within the courtyard spaces, will illuminate the lives of women of war from the year 2000 through the present day.

‘Reflection and Remembrance’ will make up a viewing platform that extends beyond the cliff in which the bunker is embedded to provide a vista of the sea, while ‘Future’ takes visitors high above the bunker onto a viewing platform that serves as a space to contemplate what they have seen.

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James Ng is a Hong Kong-born artist who has utilized inspiration from his worldwide travels to incorporate asian traditional beauty with Western themes in his work, with a steampunk sensibility that inextricably links man and machine. James’ art is unique in style and content, revealing a world in which every person is an individual, and every machine is a one of a kind beauty designed for form and long-lasting function. All of his artwork is done on the computer, though it would be hard to guess. Here are some of James Ng’s best works:

(Images via enworld, emptykingdom)

James Ng’s work often features captivating and interesting characters. The steampunk tradition is readily apparent in all the contraptions and accessories that inevitably accompany his well illustrated creations. One can easily see the relationship between these characters and their contraptions; in contrast to today’s throw away mentality, these characters have a personal connection to the technology they use.

(Images via steampunklinks, jamesngart)

Towering monuments reflective of asian architectural styles are found throughout James’ work, and they bring the beauty of architecture to a new audience (and medium), renewing a sense of wonder in these age-old designs. The flying castle reveals an entire city flying above the clouds, while the fortress is incredibly grounded.

(Images via jamesngart, enworld, emptykingdom)

Steampunk fans love steam powered contraptions and machines, the more convoluted the better, and James Ng doesn’t disappoint. With harvesters, carriages, and entertaining contraptions appearing throughout his work, James populates an entire world with a cohesive syle and aesthetic. The lack of mass production in steampunk worlds is something the real world should strive for – building to suit a need rather than utilizing resources and energy for entirely disposable results.

(Images via conceptart, imaginefx)

James Ng’s world isn’t without its corruption, so enforcers of justice are required. Melding the spirit of invention with the poignant power of a righteous warrior, James promises that no crime will go unpunished.

If any of these prints really pique your interest, support James by purchasing one in his store.

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