Designed in response to the climate crisis, SEA STEM is a vision of a self-sustaining utopia situated off the Mediterranean Coast. Rose Dykins reports
Architect Matthieu Collos has conjured up a blueprint for SEA STEM, a dome-like structure stationed 7.5 miles of the coast of the south of France, designed to foster self-sufficient living in the middle of the sea.
As the climate crisis progresses, nations all over the world are contending with rising sea levels and coastal erosion.
A keen advocate of circular architecture – where used construction products are regenerated, rather than wasted – Collos proposes that, instead of building dikes and seawalls, humans should consider an alternative, which would also ease the issue of high population density in the south of France.
SEA STEM would be the first circular economic development project in the southern French region of Occitania – which has experienced a dramatic coastal recession of 250 hectares over the past 55 years.
What’s more, SEA STEM would be 100 per cent funded by a combination of eco-tourism and scientific research programmes. Just as its reef would be a site for marine biological study and protecting species, it would also serve to attract visitors keen to learn about local sealife.