In science fiction and fantasy , floating cities and islands are a common trope , ranging from cities and islands that float on water to ones that float in the atmosphere of a planet by purported scientific technologies or by magical means. While very large floating structures have been constructed or proposed in real life, aerial cities and islands remain in the realm of fiction.
21-400: Laputa / l ə ˈ p uː t ə / is a flying island described in the 1726 book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift . It is about 4½ Miles (ca. 7¼ km) in diameter, with an adamantine base, which its inhabitants can manoeuvre in any direction using magnetic levitation . The island is the home of the king of Balnibarbi and his court, and is used by the king to enforce his rule over
42-457: A 1-mile-diameter (1.6 km) thermal airship , which they called Cloud Nine . This megastructure would be a geodesic sphere that, once it was sufficiently heated by sunlight, would become airborne. Fuller and Sadao envisioned that Cloud Nine would float freely in the Earth's atmosphere, giving residents and passengers a migratory lifestyle. They believed that it might be a partial solution to
63-606: The "surface" gravity of Saturn (that is, at the visible cloud layer, where the atmospheric pressure is about the same as Earth's) is very close to that of Earth, and in his novel The Clouds of Saturn , he envisioned cities floating in the Saturnian atmosphere, where the buoyancy is provided by envelopes of hydrogen heated by fusion reactors . Uranus and Neptune also have upper atmosphere gravities comparable to Earth's, and even lower escape velocities than Saturn. Cecelia Holland populated Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus with mutant humans,
84-572: The Styth, in floating cities in her only SF novel, Floating Worlds (1975). Donald Moffitt 's novel Jovian (2003) features floating cities forever floating in the Jovian atmosphere, a worthwhile enterprise due to their ability to extract useful gases. The book concentrates on the cultural differences (and political tensions) developing between "Jovian" humans and Earthbound ones. Shoji Sadao Shoji Sadao (貞尾 昭二, January 1927 – November 3, 2019)
105-409: The characters are on an artificial floating island that is actually a huge ship. In Yann Martel‘s novel Life of Pi , there is a floating island. In the treatise De Grandine et Tonitruis ("On Hail and Thunder", 815), Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyon describes Magonia , a cloud realm populated by felonious aerial sailors. In the novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift ,
126-559: The dense Venerean atmosphere, with over 60% of the lifting power that helium has on Earth. At an altitude of 50 km above the Venerean surface, the environment is the "most Earthlike in the solar system", according to Landis, with a pressure of approximately 1 bar and temperatures ranging between 0–50 °C (32–122 °F). In addition to Venus, floating cities have been proposed in science fiction on several other planets. For example, floating cities might also permit settlement of
147-481: The depletion of non-renewable resources. A team including Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao was commissioned by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to design the Triton City, a floating city intended to provide housing near Tokyo or Baltimore . The proposal called for tetrahedron –shaped modules supporting large housing blocks of 5,000 inhabitants each, and which would be anchored to
168-776: The design and construction of the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum , now known as the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York, with both Fuller and Noguchi, the scope of Sadao's work has yet to be fully acknowledged, perhaps due to what he himself has described as his “self-effacing” quality as a collaborator. Sadao served as the Executive Director of the Noguchi Museum from 1989 to 2003. He has since been recognized as
189-690: The ground. A large model of the habitat is on display in the lobby of the Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas . In Isaac Asimov 's story " Shah Guido G. ", the hereditary Secretary-General of the United Nations ("Sekjen") is a tyrant who rules the Earth from a flying island called Atlantis . A design similar to Fuller's Cloud Nine might permit habitation in the upper atmosphere of Venus , where at ground level
210-401: The island city of Laputa was revealed to be floating in the sky. Laputa purportedly levitated through use of artificial magnetism . It was primarily a fictional device that was intended to satirize far-fetched pseudo-scientific proposals: During the 1920s, science fiction author Hugo Gernsback speculated about floating cities of the future, suggesting that 10,000 years hence "the city
231-599: The island of Aeolia . They reappear in Pliny the Elder 's Natural History of the 1st century CE. Richard Head ‘s 1673 novel The Floating Island describes a fictional island named Scotia Moria. In The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle , the characters sail to a floating island, which later becomes fixed in place. In the DC comics story of Wonder Woman , Themyscira is a group of floating islands. In Jules Verne‘s Propeller Island ,
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#1732797408879252-477: The island, and the realm below, is some five days' journey south-south-east of Gulliver's last known position, 46° N, 183° E (i.e. east of Japan , south of the Aleutian Islands ) down a chain of small rocky islands. Floating cities and islands in fiction Seaborne floating islands have been found in literature since Homer 's Odyssey , written near the end of the 8th century BCE, described
273-409: The lands below. Laputa was located above the realm of Balnibarbi , which was ruled by its king from the flying island. Gulliver states the island flew by the "magnetic virtue" of certain minerals in the grounds of Balnibarbi which did not extend to more than 4 miles (6.5 kilometres) above, and six leagues (29 kilometres) beyond the extent of the kingdom, showing the limit of its range. The position of
294-639: The outer three gas giants , as the gas giants lack solid surfaces. Jupiter is not promising for habitation due to its high gravity , escape velocity and radiation , but the Solar System 's other gas giants ( Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune ) may be more practical. In 1978, the British Interplanetary Society 's Project Daedalus envisioned floating factories in the atmospheres of Jupiter refining helium-3 to produce fuel for an interstellar probe . Michael McCollum notes that
315-669: The production of his folded aluminum sculpture at the Stable Gallery. Sadao began working with Noguchi on gardens and landscape projects in the 1960s, and in 1971 formed Noguchi Fountain and Plaza Inc., to design the Philip A. Hart Plaza and the Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain in Detroit. Sadao also worked closely with Noguchi on the production of the well-known Akari Light Sculpture . In 1981 Sadao and Noguchi began work on
336-406: The size of New York will float several miles above the surface of the earth, where the air is cleaner and purer and free from disease carrying bacteria." To stay in the air, "four gigantic generators will shoot earthward electric rays which by reaction with the earth produce the force to keep the city aloft." In 1960, the architects Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao proposed the construction of
357-412: The temperature is too high and the atmospheric pressure too great. As scientifically and fictionally described by Geoffrey A. Landis , the easiest planet (other than Earth) to place floating cities at this point would appear to be Venus . Because the thick carbon dioxide atmosphere is 50% denser than Earth's atmosphere , breathable air with a composition similar to the latter is a lifting gas in
378-704: Was a Japanese American architect, best known for his work and collaborations with R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi . During World War II he was stationed in Germany and was a cartographer for the U.S. Army. Sadao was born in Los Angeles , California. During World War II, he and most of his family were sent to the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona following the enforcement of Executive Order 9066 . In 1945, Sadao
399-441: Was designed to accommodate one million citizens in 300,000 apartment units and included a huge interior harbor. Tetrahedron City was conceived as an efficient and sustainable living -space alternative. Its massive size and low-cost was made possible by an aluminum octet truss system. By floating on the sea, it didn’t take up any space on land. While working with lighting designer Edison Price in 1959, Sadao assisted Noguchi with
420-600: Was drafted into the US Army and served for four years. Buckminster Fuller was Sadao’s instructor while studying architecture at Cornell University , where they first met in the early 1950s. In 1954, Sadao spent the year using his expertise as a cartographer to hand draw the Dymaxion Airocean World Map , which was his first collaboration with Fuller. The first edition of the map "the Raleigh edition"
441-458: Was printed by Edwards and Broughton and was issued in an edition of 3,000 copies in the summer of 1954. In 1964 Sadao co-founded the architectural firm Fuller & Sadao Inc., whose first project was to design the large geodesic dome for the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal . In 1968 Fuller and Sadao designed Tetrahedron City, for Matsutaro Shoriki , a Japanese financier. The complex
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