As the Seapod project has gone through its different phases of design and development, a lot of ideas have been considered, and an underwater room is one that has recently resurfaced. The Seapod design includes a long steel spar that supports the housing pod. But here at Ocean Builders, waste is not a welcome concept.
The supporting steel spar offered a lot of interesting opportunities as Grant has sought to make use of the space inside it, and make the Seapod design yet more efficient. The design phases have seen a number of concepts and ideas suggested to better utilize the space in the spar.
The original prototype saw a much wider version of the spar used. This meant that rooms or storage space could potentially be created inside the space itself. However, using a large column to support the Seapod presented a challenge in that it would interact with the wave more, creating movement, and movement is not so desirable for living conditions. Because of this, the column was narrowed, to about 1.6m in diameter, offering less potential space inside but also less wave interaction and less movement.
Another factor that arose when considering how to use the spar efficiently was buoyancy. In considering this, a large submerged area has been proposed to help stabilize and life the pod structure. This submerged part of the Seapod would offer a much larger space than the spar, around 6m in total.
This idea was shelved because the team has been developing a tri-spar structure for shallow water, but as considerations for other designs are ever-present, the concept of this submerged living space has come back.
The video here shows us a concept of how this submerged living space could look. This picture also gives us a sense of the scale of how fascinating this UFO-like room would look when in use beneath the surface of the waves.
Although a final design is some way off, these considerations and visual references really highlight how Ocean Builders are continuing to push for innovative and unique designs for innovative and unique living.
