Early ideas

Back now many years ago, the idea of building a new floating kingdom came up. It was not looked on as a practical project at that time but as a discussion topic and something that might be possible at a later point.

The original idea was a series of rings, and early drawings show lock gates between rings, a central castle like structure and the rings getting wider as they go out  while the water spacing stayed the same and had bridges across. All was shown enclosed in an outer wall. 

The islands were low, and you could step straight off them onto small boats with structures built on them, and the concept was that the sea would be smoothed a stage at a time as you moved towards the center.

As the years rolled by

As time passed the design evolved into a series of islands, and the the circles turned into a spiral. Eventually the design evolved into the three strand spiral design we have today.

Over the years the sizes of the islands have also grown, both in area and vertically, as have the size of the outer walls.  Many of the designs now involve buildings within the structure of islands as well as on them, so the potential in terms of occupied area has been multiplied many times.

As the size has increased and in effect layers have been added, and some structures like walls that were early on just walls but now contain facilities, the relative cost per square yard of usable space has come crashing down to a fraction of what was first estimated.

The potential to have an airport within the design only came up around 10-15 years ago, up to that time no islands were considered that would be large enough to house them, and even as recent as 1999 the design had the airport on an island within the spiral structure rather than as a large structure at the back of the kingdom.

Some problems that were difficult to deal with in the early designs have just gone away as later developments have occurred, for example how to connect to a telephone cable while you may move about has been made obsolete by satellite communication, and knowing exactly where you are and avoiding  collision with ships likewise has been solved by satellite position finding systems. 

Energy creation has been another area where ideas have evolved from wind power to wave power to OTEC.

As to materials, Ferrocement has always been the basis, as it is cheap to produce, strong and flexible with an indefinite life expectancy. However more recently seacrete and wooden sections within pre built pods have become a major feature in many designs.

Time scale

Even in the mid 90's few thought it could become a practical reality within their lifetime, however as the problems have been overcome one by one and the designs have evolved, we are now at a point where within a few years we could see work commencing.

The development of the state

In parallel with these practical considerations of how to create a physical kingdom the discussions and investigations have been going on into the design of the new floating kingdom.  Enormous progress has been made and many ideas have now been firmed up, while other details are still being finalized.

There have been setbacks, but these have done more damage to our community operations on land and damaged the finances of key trusts. This may slow things down, but may also make us stronger in our desire to create the kingdom and be a driving force to make it a reality.

You can find more details on New Atlantis, its history, objectives and projects across the range of web sites that we have in addition to this one, which concentrates primarily on the task of building the floating kingdom.

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For problems or questions regarding this web contact info@build.new-atlantis.org
Last updated: October 09, 2002.