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Artificial islands — those created by humans rather than natural means — constructed in the distant past and becoming increasingly rampant in recent years have been built by all sorts of revolutionary and bizarre methods and materials, from construction upon existing reefs, drudging of sand and blasted rock, to stainless steel, and even trash.

Photo Photo Durrat Al Bahrain

Ranging vastly in scale from land reclamations to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those which support entire megalithic sized communities to expand upon non-existent land availability in a crowded metropolis as well as structures of art, each has its own amazing features or notability of character.

Pearl-Qatar
Designed to resemble a string of pearls, the Pearl-Qatar in Doha, Qatar is an artificial island spanning nearly four million square meters, creating over 20 miles (32 kilometers) of new coastline, located 383 yards (350 meters) offshore of Doha’s West Bay Lagoon area on a former pearl diving site.

Ritzcarlton Qatar & The Pearl Qatar. Photo Ayham Hassan

Reclaimed for use as a residential estate, once completed it will be the first land in Qatar to be available for freehold ownership by foreign nationals with an expected 15,000 dwellings by 2010. The $2.5 billion U.S. offshore Pearl-Qatar project will eventually house over 30,000 residents in an up-scale, multi-cultural residential community which will be a secure and exclusive Island.

Photo Lynx Eye1

Photo بوبدر

Photo Esmamputsi

Developed by United Development Company (UDC), residential development is intended to incorporate various themes including aspects of Arabic, Mediterranean and European culture, with commercial facilities to support the various residential precincts including 3 luxury hotels and 3 marinas, with combined mooring for over 700 boats in the Riviera Arabia themed districts.

Autopia Ampere
Visionary designer Wolf Hilbertz’s plan to grow a self-sustaining island city on Seamount Ampere, located about halfway between the Madeira Islands and the tip of Portugal, will extend 50 feet down to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Photo Popular Mechanics

Hibertz aims to use the oceans as a home of the future with an ingenious and revolutionary method that he developed, using sunlight to turn minerals in seawater into limestone, which in turn will construct floating island homes.

A massive limestone dam would surround the city to develop Autopia Ampere, beginning with a series of wire-mesh armatures anchored atop a sea mountain connected to a supply of low-voltage direct current, and building components will be grown in the sea.

Photo Popular Mechanics

Over time, electrochemical reactions will draw minerals from the sea to the armatures, creating walls of calcium carbonate — in effect, limestone.

Photo Popular Mechanics

Solar panels, wind generators and a thermal energy conversion system will supply power to the ‘dam’ that will extract power from temperature differences among different ocean currents.

Similar to how a sponge absorbs water, the oceans absorb CO2. By removing carbon-containing compounds from the oceans, the mineral accretion process would help reduce the buildup of CO2, a greenhouse gas — a unique and great way to save the environment if it ever gets developed.

Dubai Waterfront
The Dubai Waterfront — now known as Waterfront — is expected to become the largest waterfront and largest man-made development in the world, adding more than 44 miles (70 kilometers) to Dubai’s coastline.

Photo Imredubai

A conglomeration of canals and artificial islands occupying the last remaining Persian Gulf coastline of Dubai, the most populous emirate of the United Arab Emirates, the vision of the project was “to create a world-class destination for residents, visitors and businesses in the world’s fastest growing city.”

Dubai in 2009

The World
The World — one of several artificial island projects being constructed in Dubai — is a man-made group of 300 islands created in the shape of the continents of the world in the profile of a world map, located 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) off. The World is built primarily using sand dredged from the sea, originally conceived by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai.

Each island in the archipelago ranges from about 150,000 square feet (14,000 sq meters) to 450,000 square feet (42,000 sq meters) with a distance between each island at an average of 328 feet (100 meters). The entire development covers an area of 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) in length and 3.8 miles (6 kilometers) in width, surrounded by an oval breakwater. Roughly 144 miles (232 kilometers) of shoreline has been created.

Photo EFP

The overall development cost of The World was estimated as $14 billion U.S. Individual islands prices range between $15 and $50 million U.S. but one island is still for sale at a price of $250 million U.S.

The project was unveiled on May 6 2003 by Sheikh Mohammed, and dredging began 4 months later in September 2003. By January 2008, 60% of the islands had been sold, 20 of which were bought in the first 4 months of 2007. On January 10 2008, the final stone on the breakwater was laid, completing initial development. The next phase of the project is to hand over the individual islands to developers.

The small private artificial islands of private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands can only be accessed by boat.

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