Retire Early in an Underwater Metropolis

It’s never too early to do a little preemptive retirement or future vacation planning. Japanese construction company Shimizu Corporation aims to jump aboard everyone’s bucket list by delivering plans to build an underwater metropolis by 2030. Aptly named the “Ocean Spiral,” the submerged city would take the form of a floating dome containing businesses, homes, hotels and just about anything else you can see out of your window currently. Beneath the aforementioned dome would be a nine-mile-tall helical structure that travels down to the seabed, used to create an “Earth factory” where natural resources would be harvested for both energy and materials. According to Shimizu, microorganisms could be used to turn carbon dioxide into methane, while changes in seawater temperature could be used as an energy source and hydraulic pressure could turn seawater into fresh drinking water. If all goes accordingly, the £16 billion GBP (approximately $25 billion USD) project may be ready to break water in 2025.