Flooded Future
what about living underwater ?
You know,
It is no news that one of our possible futures will be flooded by the glacial melt. Studies have shown that the sea level will rise of a few meters in the next 50 years.
Wandering the design world lately, I’ve come across a lot of projects tackling the ocean topic. It made me wonder : Instead of crowded pieces of lands filled up with climate refugees, could we imagine a future underwater ? A few designers also started to work around this possibility.
Indeed, the wide Ocean is still one of the rare space that Humans haven’t fully invaded yet. Could we imagine to live among the Sea Kingdom ?
Adapt and Evolve
Like Kevin Costner in Waterworld, we could imagine that the human body would mutate to survive in a flooded world. Until then, the designer Jun Kamei imagined a device allowing to breath underwater. I discovered Amphibio project at the St Etienne Design Biennale. These artificial gills are made out of a material supporting underwater breathing by replenishing oxygen from the surrounding water and dissipating carbon dioxide which accumulates in the system.
Raw Materials from the Ocean
A new world to discover but also new habits to take. Our raw materials won’t be the same. Algae might be at the center of our alimentation but could also be used to replace plastic. Atelier Luma together with the designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dros have already developed a bioplastic made from algae .
We will also have a lot of real plastic to deal with as our ancestors filled the Ocean with it. Plastic will maybe become a precious raw material for the future craftsmen. Toni Packam’s highlighted very well the aesthetic potential of ocean’s plastic waste with her “Sea plastic” collection. As for Kelly Jazvac , she foresees a future where Plastiglomerates (mix of molten plastic debris and beach sediment) will be the new kind of stones invading the beaches.
We might also pay more attention to the treasures populating the see. Sea shells will become the mass trend for waterpeople interiors. The designer Bethan Gray already found a way to include them into pieces of furniture.
Grow underwater
Nowadays, our alimentation is based on growing corn, wheat and rice to feed humans and cattle. But what will happen when no fertile ground will be left ?
One option could be to replace farms with coral reefs to rear several species of fish and algae at once. Australian designer Alex Goad has already created a system of modular ceramic components allowing to encourage the growth of coral reefs.
But if we miss corn and wheat too much, Nemo’s Garden developed a way to grow terrestrial plants under the sea. With sea filtered sunlight, a constant temperature and a protection against parasites, plants thrives in these underwater bubbles.
The Mermaid obsession
After a few centuries living under water Humans might start to dream of one thing only : becoming mermaids. A myth from -3500 BRW “before the rising waters” suddenly taking all its sense. Fortunately, Six N. Five studio have already imagined a whole museum dedicated to mermaid references in History and mermaids pieces of arts.
Six N. Five realized this project together with Nur Casadevall and also created a short film called "How to be a Mermaid". Plenty of good advice for the future waterpeople.
COLOUR PALETTE
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