Protection and so much more

The sea wall around the floating kingdom serves a number of purposes, the prime one of course being to protect the islands from waves and storms.

The individual units that make up the wall are shaped so that they will turn waves over back on themselves, perhaps a little like a snow plough does, in this way the energy is dissipated. 

Manufacture and installation

There is no final design at this time, but we have many ideas and see a number of potential design features.

All the early units will be constructed within existing boat building yards or dry docks, floated to location and then as a group assembled at a time of the year when the weather permits it.

Connected together they will form a continuous wall oval or circle around the kingdom, with just an entrance for ships to come in. At the front we envisage an extra section shaped like the front of a very large ship, again made up of many parts. This point will face into the waves, and break the largest waves. It also provides two levels of protection for the front of the kingdom.

The individual connected units could be just wall units, constructed as ballasted shells made of Ferrocement with a very strong internal matrix structure, we see no problem in making it strong enough to withstand any storm, or sea condition.

One idea is that the units should be made so that they can float out flat, and have a compartment opened allowing water in, which will mean that the lower end which is already ballasted will cause it to stand up on end, being about half in and half out of the water.

Some ideas have included first out wall units that are protective shells, and later these are replaced or added to with units that contain other items.

The design has to allow the kingdom to grow so more wall units will from time to time need to be added, these could continue to be made as above or a floating dock unit built so later units could be constructed on site. Another approach would be to build them from the ground up, within or against the existing wall.

At the point a new wall unit is added, the structure will be weaker so weather conditions will effect when this can occur. Another installation feature is going to be the need to alter the angle that units join at as the wall increases, or to go around the circle putting pieces between alternate existing pieces to change the shape. Several solutions have been suggested including the front piece staying a fixed shape and the back getting larger to form a pear shape. 

Rigidity

The islands within the kingdom will form a spiral shape, with guys holding each in place, these guys extend to the outer walls   The effect of this is a little like the spokes and rim of a bicycle, in that the curve is held and extra strength created.

When needed these should be able to be tightened making the entire kingdom function in structure very similar to slightly flexible but very large solid disk. 

If very large waves do at any future time break over the front of the kingdom, at the pointed end the water will fall within an area and still away from the main wall protecting the kingdom.  

Useful walls

The walls in addition to providing protection could also  have other uses, power generation from the waves of rise and fall of the sea is one we have covered within the power pages, within the design section. This involves opening part of the bottom to allow water to rise and fall inside the wall and using this piston effect to blow out air through one hole and suck through another driving a generator.

A walk way for tourists around all or parts of the wall has also been suggested.

In most of the wall there would also be the possibility of making it thicker and having residential units built into it, either looking over the kingdom or with extra strong windows over the ocean, the exception might be the very front where the shaking by the waves in some conditions might make this unpleasant, some designs with larger units however suggest this would be less marked than on a cruise ship. Storage is another use, as is service units. The rear wall could have the control tower for the airport behind and parts of the resort built within it. 

Our sketches of the kingdom used as thought provokers, used the inner wall to have landing stages for craft, both visiting and supply craft.

The front end has to be the strongest and so far we have not come up with an alternative use for this large walled in sea area when the weather does not make it unusable. One suggestion has been a fold down floor area providing some sort of sports arena and open air concert area, with the inner walls containing boxes or stalls. The idea of a stage area is in our view more practical than trying to design a floor that is removable, but we doubt the economics of this proposal. 

Clearly many of the wall units can be used, and it is likely that a number of uses will be made of them.

On the top we could have vertical wings, and this is discussed on the wings page, together with using underwater wings as stabilizers.

Alternative technologies

While some see the walls as very large units, sitting deep into the ocean, another alternative being considered would be far lighter units built using pneumatic platforms (see the pneumatics page), and making greater use of wings above and below.

Another possibility is that there could be a very long thin nose starting well under the waves and acting as sharp end to cut waves and deflect them outwards over some distance, in effect using the power of the waves themselves to create a sheltered area containing the kingdom. 

The most likely final solution is a combination of all these technologies.

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Last updated: October 09, 2002.