Floating city ahead
by Simon Jones

Living on the ocean wave. A life of freedom or boredom?

Despite the fact that three-quarters of the Earth's surface is covered in water mass living at sea has failed to catch on. But ahoy there, on the horizon is an ambitious project by Norman Nixon for a floating self-contained city that could be coming your way… Yes, this one's different, it will be the first that can move. At about a mile in length and 25 storeys above water, the gigantic Freedom Ship will circumnavigate the globe every two years stopping off at exotic tropical islands that are only accessible by sea. It is hoped that these stopovers will create a tidal wave of visitors onto the ship to sample the shops of the largest duty-free mall in the world, as well as the many restaurants and entertainment facilities on board.

Tourism is just one small part in the colossal scheme of things. With the introduction of light manufacturing and assembly enterprises, business will also play a major part. Every public amenity imaginable including schools educating children from kindergarten through to college, a well-appointed hospital and a library will turn what could be a glorified cruise liner into a self-sufficient city.

So far it sounds that life on board for the 50,000 could feel a little claustrophobic at times. However, provision has also be made for over 140 acres of wide open spaces including parks with waterfalls and ponds for when you need your own space.

The project is a social experiment as well as an engineering feat that will take monumental attention to detail to get right. According to the Freedom Ship website, the ship will be as big as this " simply because that is the size required to make the community economically self-sustaining and a desirable place to live." So far over eight years have been spent in "concept development, feasibility studies, engineering design, marketing studies, construction-site searches and financial analyses" from a group of professional engineers, businessmen, doctors, lawyers and professionals from other fields.

With a team of 2000 security personnel in force, it appears that the ship will potentially be a safe environment to live. If tensions arise it will likely to be surrounding issues that threaten the individual freedom of its inhabitants than between diverse groups of people. The residents will share a commonality - wealthy people in search of a relaxing, utopian lifestyle. Although the project mixes business with pleasure, the set up appears to favour the latter.

Even with the wealth of facilities on board plus the opportunity to visit many exotic corners of the world, it's hard to imagine that anyone would want to live on the ship for the majority of their lives or indeed raise children there. The feeling that you are missing on a normal part of everyday life, such as bumping into an old friend down at the pub, or something as mundane as doing a spot of DIY, would always be at the back of your mind. If this is freedom it's not as we know it.