Times Union: Japan firm working on ZEN imagines future floating
cities
Published:
Friday, March 25, 2016 - 10:50
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="408"]
A botanical city as imagined by Shimizu of Japan[/caption]
Shimizu Corp., the Japanese firm that is working with SUNY Polytechnic Institute on Japan’s $25 million demonstration project at SUNY Poly’s new ZEN building in Albany, is imaging a future where there are man made, self sufficient floating cities.
The cities are called green floats, or botanical cities, and they look something like an inverted cloud city in the Empire Strikes Back. And they are immune to tsunamis and earthquakes.
Japan has been working extremely hard since the tsunami disaster of 2011 to find ways to design buildings that can withstand tsunamis and earthquakes and that use renewable energy so as to reduce the island’s reliance on nuclear energy.
During a visit to the ZEN building this week, Koji Abe, deputy chief of the Japanese consulate, also said that the export of such sustainable design is a major focus of “Abenomics,” the economic stimulus policies of Japan Prime Minister Shinz? Abe.
