Celestopea, City of Dreams

by Jesse and Sumara Love

Imagine the fabled city of Atlantis rising from the ocean depths, a beautiful futuristic wonder of curves and domes set upon the sparkling sea where a diverse, multiracial, multicultural, highly educated society prospers and enjoys radiant health and extraordinarily long life.

Though Atlantis passed into history and mythology long ago, it still lives in the hearts of many of us as a symbol of a time when an advanced civilization lived prosperously and harmoniously upon the Earth. With all the creative, inspired, and resourceful people on this planet, do we not have the knowledge and tools to recreate such a shining light? Seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is water, so why not look to the sea as a place to rebirth this dream?

Celestopea is envisioned as such a rebirth. The Celestopea Project is the planned ecological colonization of the Earth's oceans through a series of self-sufficient, semi-autonomous floating communities incorporating innovative new technologies, industries, and social organization. Some will be small, floating Seadome communities, close to shore, comprised of 7–48 homes and garden domes. Many of the residents of the near-shore communities will still commute to work at jobs on shore each day. Larger, self-sufficient Celestopea communities will be located in international waters, with floating Seadome communities clustered around an artificial island created on a base of accreted Celestopea Seament and permacultured into a lush, tropical land of hills, valleys, and waterfalls.

Diversity and tolerance are bywords of Celestopea. Residents of Celestopea’s villages and communities will show by exemplary actions that people of different races and divergent political, religious, cultural, and social beliefs can live and prosper together while also being good stewards of the earth, respecting and thereby benefiting all inhabitants and ecosystems of the planet.

Celestopea Seadomes are designed like no other structures on earth. Because they will be subject to the unforgiving marine environment, they must not only be uniquely resistant to corrosive elements but also inherently stronger than similar land-based structures. The challenge becomes to create floating homes that meet high structural engineering requirements while maintaining graceful, beautiful, and aesthetically pleasing designs.

Early Seadomes, slated to begin construction in 2004, will be made of ferrocement, a tried and true medium that has been used for over 100 years to build the most durable ships that float the seven seas. A unique substance, ferrocement combines thin rebar, wire mesh, and very fine cement into an incredibly strong, homogenous substance. A _ inch thick wall has the strength of steel in addition to being impervious to corrosion, immune to harmful ultraviolet sun rays, fireproof, rustproof, rotproof, toredo-worm-proof, and termite-proof—and it gets stronger with age. Celestopea Seadomes will also be unsinkable. In a public demonstration planned for Elliot Bay in Seattle, all of the windows and doors of one of the first Seadomes will be sealed, then it will be filled completely with water to demonstrate its unfailing floating capabilities.

If the Celestopea Project planned to build the permacultured island community out of any conventional material, it would be cost prohibitive to the tune of billions of dollars. Fortunately, a new technology was pioneered in the early ’80s by a University of Texas professor, Wolf Hilbertz, that allows the creation of buildings and even artificial islands from the minerals dissolved in seawater. A similar process to the way shellfish create their shells, it is called by various names, Seament, Seacrete and Sea Cement being chief among them. We have improved on the original techniques and call it Celestopea Seament. Choosing a location near

a "Seamount" close to the surface, utilizing air bags to lift accreted land forms, and then accreting additional material beneath allows for the creation of large islands.

ature at the surface of the tropical oceans and the much cooler temperature 3,000 to 4,000 feet below the surface. This temperature variation is used to generate totally pollution free electricity from an inexhaustible renewable source. Each day the 23 million square miles of tropical ocean absorbs an amount of solar energy equal in heat content to 250 billion barrels of oil. A 100 megawatt OTEC will consume 41 megawatts to pull cold water up the surface, leaving a net of 59 megawatts for electricity and other uses.

We have been laying the groundwork for the past several years and the first large community of Celestopea with an accreted permacultured island is scheduled to be created in the year 2011. Individual Seadome homes should be available for sale to the general public within the next couple of years. We are currently accepting applications from anyone who has an interest in owning a Seadome and living in one of the early near-shore or traveling communities.

Millennia after the great pyramids of Egypt were built, they are still one of the absolute wonders of the world. So let it be for Celestopea. Let us bring our knowledge, talents and abilities together to build our "City of Dreams" and be heralds of peace, prosperity and unity of all the people upon the Earth.