Earthquake and Fire Proof Floating Houses Coming to Los Angeles
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.25.07
According to the usually reliable Weekly World News:
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Due to the recent fires at Griffith Park and the ongoing threat of earthquakes and even tsunamis, city developers have been planning the next phase of urban expansion with safety in mind.
“We’re going to zone the skies above Los Angeles for floating buildings,” said city planning spokesperson Z. Rowe Gees. “These structures, called Strat-Houses, will be modeled after the old dirigibles, over a thousand feet long. Unlike zeppelins such as the Hindenburg, they will not be carried aloft by explosive hydrogen. The Strat-Houses will be supported by nacelles filled with helium.”
Living quarters will be built inside the airships, with penthouses on top and sub-penthouses below. Engines fore and aft will keep the entire structure stationary.
“Floating above the smog at two thousand feet, the lower penthouses will have truly spectacular city views,” Gees pointed out. “All of the westward-facing condominiums will have unobstructed ocean views, while the eastern side will look out at the mountains.
“Every six months the Strat-House will turn 180 degrees, changing the views of each residence.”
Because the Strat-Houses will float above the cloud layer, they will be bathed in perpetual sunshine. Located well outside the flight paths to and from LAX, there will be no chance of collision with a jetliner.
“The only inconvenience — and it is a minor one — will be going out,” said Gees. “The Strat-Houses will descend just twice a day, in the morning and at night, dropping occupants at nearby parking garages. Leaving at any other time will require the use of a small gondola that descends on a cable. However, that ride could get a little hairy, especially during the brisk Santa Ana winds that blow through here during autumn and early winter.”
Still, there is no shortage of people who are signing up to own a Strat-House.
“It’s the ultimate status symbol,” said one major film star — who, nonetheless, does not intend to purchase one. “Careers, box office — everything in this town eventually goes down. I wouldn’t want to worry that my home would be one of those things.” ::Weekly World News
I want what they have been smoking.
From the folks that brought you Bat Boy.
I'm not sure about the energy needed to raise or lower it, but otherwise its a good use of land space, and a damn cool idea.
The modern source of Helium is from filtering it out of natural gas. Once the natural gas is gone the only source left will be radioactive decay.
I just love when people who are completely ignorant of the physical and chemical properties of the world reassure us they won't be using any of that darn old "explosive hydrogen".
Hydrogen is "explosive" only when it approaches a specific molecular ratio with oxygen. In that the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, getting that 2/1 ratio inside a hydrogen filled balloon would be quite an amazing piece of work.
When the great Zeppelins were manufactured its designers had no access to todays' low voltage hydrogen safety sensors, which can instantaneously sense and report the potential for an explosive mixture forming, and would allow for gradual intervention by diluting with an inert gas such as nitrogen or helium.
In the Zeppelin explosion case, lightning ignited the lacquer coated and highly flammable shell, causing a deflation that led to the crash and fire.
A direct lightning hit would also cause a helium filled balloon to crash.
The earth has a very finite reserve of commercially exploitable helium, most of which is derived from natural gas and much of which the nuclear power industry may also planning to use for reaction moderation in the new generation of power plants. Frivolous uses like the one described here do not seem sustainable in that context.
It's obviously a joke (Z Rowe Gees? zero-g? Geddit?) but airships are coming back...
I wonder if LA isn't more suited to reclaiming land from the sea or building floating islands...
"The modern source of Helium is from filtering it out of natural gas. Once the natural gas is gone the only source left will be radioactive decay."
Or gas giant planets.
Actually, this may be a joke article but what I'm working on is quite serious. The Airship League is involved in prototyping new and novel applications for airship and balloon technology.
Check us out at airshipleague.com
I don't mean to spam or anything, it's a public-interest project anyway.
"I wonder if LA isn't more suited to reclaiming land from the sea or building floating islands..."
Given the earthquakes that frequently occur (and the history of occasional major quakes), plus subsidence in Long Beach and San Pedro Bay caused by oil extraction from the Wilmington, Farrance, and Belmont Oil Fields, I would have to say NO to building artificial islands or peninsulas onto the seabed.
Floating islands may have potential though if you can wade the sea of red tape (where are fresh water and power coming from, where's waste water going to be treated, will it affect shipping lanes, what if its moorings snap, how will it affect flora and fauna beneath it, can you deal with any crackpots who may think it an eyesore on their beautiful seascape, and on and on ad nauseum) and find funding for it and a place to build it. I would truly love to see something like this built and floated in Cali, or anywhere really.