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City of Meriens: The Floating International Oceanographic University That Never Was

It would be unfair to rate dreams, especially those that never came to be, but if such a rank existed, it would have the City of Meriens among the top entries. So here’s how one architect and oceanographer imagined the future.
City of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self-sufficient 8 photos
Photo: Jacques Rougerie
City of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self-sufficientCity of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self-sufficientCity of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self-sufficientCity of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self-sufficientCity of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self-sufficientThe SeaOrbiter semi-submersibleThe SeaOrbiter semi-submersible
The City of Meriens, or La Cite de Mériens in French, which roughly translates to “the city of sea-residents,” is the creation of esteemed French architect and oceanographer Jacques Rougerie. The idea took root with him way back in 2009, but was eventually put to paper in 2015, when Rougerie designed the outline of this floating city, which he would integrate with another one of his famous projects, the SeaOrbiter international sea station. Think of the latter as the ISS (International Space Station), but of the sea.

Rougerie is the ultimate dreamer, but he is also a very practical man. He has extensive experience in building underwater habitats, museums and aquatic centers, and he believed he could use that to carry his work into the maritime environment further. That next step would have been the City of Meriens, a floating city that would serve a very noble purpose, have nearly zero negative impact on the environment, and promote international cooperation and research.

The idea of floating cities is not new. Indeed, in recent years, certain developments have taken it into the realm of luxury real estate, amid the increasing threat of rising sea levels. Rougerie’s proposal is among the few with a purely educational purpose, which would bring it to the top of that hypothetical ranking of dreams. City of Meriens is not just for the rich who can afford to spend millions for a residence onboard, but for researchers and scientists (and students) from all over the world. As such, it would benefit us all, even though not directly.

City of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self\-sufficient
Photo: Jacques Rougerie
So, in 2015, the City of Meriens project came to be. Designed to be operated by UNESCO (United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), it would serve as a permanently-floating, fully self-sufficient floating university and research center. Perhaps the most striking element about the project, which got it plenty of media attention at the time, was its peculiar shape: City of Meriens is based on Rougerie’s study on bionic and biomimetic architecture, so it’s shaped like a manta ray.

With a total length of 900 meters (2,953 feet) and a width of 500 m (1,640 feet), the City of Meriens would have a draft of 35 meters (115 feet), so part of its structure would be permanently submerged. This would serve a double purpose, that of allowing researchers the possibility to explore the environments they’d pass through from inside the ship and that of integrating aquaculture breeding farms.

The floating city would house up to 25,000 people from all fields of research and education, and they’d all be working together to study and learn from our oceans. Since they would live onboard on either a permanent or extended basis, certain leisure facilities would also be available: the brief mentions lecture halls and classrooms, and laboratories, as well as living areas, sports areas, and dedicated spaces for “cultural relaxation.” Naturally, dining areas and other forms of lighter, less academic entertainment would have also been included.

Another highlight of the City of Meriens was the way it integrated into Rougerie’s work up to that date, because it was designed to follow the multidisciplinary programs developed with the SeaOrbiter at their core.

City of Meriens is a floating city designed for international research, fully self\-sufficient
Photo: Jacques Rougerie
As noted above, SeaOrbiter is Rougerie’s international sea station, which also offers permanent residence to researchers and which should have gone under construction in 2014 and then 2015 for an estimated cost of $53 million apiece. Rougerie imagined a network of SeaOrbiter sentinels set up by 2050, but things are not looking bright in that direction. The “eye” of the sea station was completed at some point, but there’s been no update on the project since early 2021.

The tail of the manta-ray-shaped City of Meriens is actually a lagoon, as renders in the gallery show. It serves as a docking marina for research vessels of different size, but no bigger than 90 meters (295 feet) in length. Also here, several SeaOrbiters would be placed, serving as hive that “marine and submarine vehicles and air navigation devices would use as a point of departure.” Say what you will about Rougerie and his dreams of a more sustainable future, but he was definitely not afraid to dream big. The biggest.

Speaking of sustainability, building a floating city to explore marine environments would have been useless if it weren’t sustainable. Rougerie imagined the City of Meriens as a fully self-sufficient structure, one that would use green energy for propulsion, grow its own food, make its own water, and virtually sail around the world, leaving no (negative) trace behind. The project never got into a more advanced stage, where it would go into the specifics of these systems, and the brief only mentioned the use of renewable marine energy, a focus on zero-waste and sustainable development, the aquaculture breeding farms, and hydroponic greenhouses at the end of each wing.

The SeaOrbiter semi\-submersible
Photo: Jacques Rougerie
“City of Meriens would revolutionize the world of underwater studies due to the fact that people would have a permanent contact with the ocean, as well as a direct access to the underwater world, as part of the City is completely underwater,” Rougerie told the media in 2015, when the project was published. “Regarding the world of water vessel design, the City of Meriens will hopefully inspire designs that place the man in complete harmony with the sea.”

Sadly, neither has happened: there’s been no revolutionizing of underwater studies and no harmony achieved between man and sea – and what beautiful dreams those are.

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Editor's note: Photos in the gallery also show the SeaOrbiter semi-submersible / sea station.

About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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