Plans for world's first 'floating city' unveiled

WASHINGTON: The Seasteading Institute has signed an agreement to work on the world's first floating city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with the government of French Polynesia

According to press reports, the construction work is expected to begin in 2019.

As the French Polynesia, a collection of 118 islands in the southern Pacific, is at risk from rising sea levels due to rising climate change, the government of the islands has signed a memorandum of understanding with the San Francisco-based institute.

Speaking to ABC news Randolph Hencken, executive director of the institute, said: "What we're interested in is societal choice and having a location where we can try things that haven't been tried before.

"I don't think it will be that dramatically radical in the first renditions,” he said. "We were looking for sheltered waters, we don't want to be out in the open ocean - it's technologically possible but economically outrageous to afford.”

Henken added: "If we can be behind a reef break, then we can design floating platforms that are sufficient for those waters at an affordable cost.

"We don't have to start from scratch as this is a pilot project. They also have very stable institutions so we're able to work with a government that wants us there, that we have respect for and they have respect for us."