2023-10-02 23:58:11
Updated Monday, October 2, 2023 – 23:58
The modular system will be implemented on the continental shelf near the coast of Wales in 2027.
Sentinel, the modular city of Deep.DEEP
7.5% of the Earth’s surface is occupied by the so-called continental shelves, the relatively flat underwater floor which acts as a basement of the land and has depths of less than 200 meters below the sea surface. Continental shelves are only part of the mystery of the oceans, but they are a beginning for man: Deep, an American company dedicated to underwater research, will build the first permanent underwater habitat in southeast Wales at the symbolic depth of 200 meters deep. 2027 is the year planned for the launch.
The history that preceded this project is long but discontinuous. Its roots are in literature, but it only began with Conshelf I-Digenes which was, in 1962, the first house at the bottom of the sea inhabited by man. Even if it were on a modest seabed: that construction, measuring 7.5 square meters, It was installed 10 meters deep on the coast of Marseille. Jacques Yves Cousteau designed it and the scientists Albert Falco and Claude Wesly lived in it for a week in heroic conditions. Unlike other later submarine ships, the Conshelf I-Digenesit does not have a dry zone, was flooded on its floor. Its inhabitants left the ship for five hours to explore their surroundings.
On its stele, another 25 underwater habitats appear censused in Architecture in extreme environments: submarine habitats, an academic investigation by the architect Clara Redondo Canales. Almost all were built in the 1960s and early 1970s.which not coincidentally was the era in which the space race advanced with more decisiveness.
Most of these constructions were submerged between 20 and 50 meters deep. The exception was Aegir, a US Government facility that It was active between 1969 and 1971 on the continental shelf of Hawaii. Its 25 square meters allowed teams of six to complete missions of up to 14 days at a depth of 178 meters.
So Deep’s habitat, called Sentinel, is a leap back in time, to the years of positivist and futuristic optimism, and a leap forward because it expands everything seen so far. Not only because he can reach the symbolic quota of 200 meters. The designed installation is a system of pluggable modules that can grow unlimitedly and that allows, among other things, to spend long stays inside. In the images that Deep has published there are living rooms and bedrooms that are reminiscent of the Japanese bullet train cars of the 70s. And its design includes a waste treatment model and a permanent energy generation system. through buoys connected to the base. Missions in Sentinel could last a month without having to relieve researchers.
The interior of Sentinel.
“It is strange that so much research has been done on outer space habitats and so little on underwater habitats, when It is much easier to work in the oceans“, says Clara Redondo Canales. What is the use of a house 200 meters deep? “The difficulty for underwater research is the time available. Every 10 meters of depth means descending one sphere and each change of sphere requires a delay time of 10 minutes to acclimatize the human body. A permanent habitat allows us to amortize that wait.”
The Sentinel images are also interesting as an aesthetic fact. They are evocative because they are reminiscent of other images taken from literature and cinema and of old utopian visions of humanity. A little Verne, a little Star Trek, a little retrofuturism… Underwater architectures “tend to use curved surfaces to better distribute the thrust loads produced by water when submerging any object“explains Redondo Canales. For this reason, marine fauna also tends to be ovoid. And they are horizontal because this way they are better anchored to the ground. “The greater the push that is exerted from below, the more force must be used to prevent them from raise the structure.”
Sentinel, the modular city of Deep.
“The structures,” continues the architect, “are always based on very heavy foundations, usually made of concrete, which anchor it to the ground, and on metallic surfaces, lighter. “And something unexpected has happened to them: when they were discarded, these habitats have created a lot of life around them because the oxygen they contain attracted vegetation and fauna.”
The only thing left to ask is what is the reason for investing time and resources in researching the soil of the continental shelves. “For a long time, underwater habitats were used to rehearse space missions.” Today, the promise of mineral wealth is an incentive for research. Just like on Mars.
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