User:Vincecate/BallHouse

Idea

Idea is to use a ball shape with HangingBallast to stabilize it. With four or more ropes going to a single ballast well below the ball. With a 30 foot diameter ball you could have two good floors and extra storage space. Should be enough for a family. This is probably about the lowest cost structure with enough space that is still safe on the open ocean.

This is very much like User:Vincecate/GeodesicVessel but with no stability from the shape of the structure. This really needs a hanging ballast.

Internal

The geodesic shape should mean you don't need as much, or maybe any, internal bracing. This can open up the inside space and make it cheaper to build.

Materials

If we could make a form for concrete this could be really cheap. In Anguilla they make forms for poring cisterns where the two sides of the form are connected together by pieces of metal which stay in the concrete. There is a way these are released from the form so the form can be taken off. I think a similar thing could be done to make a 30 foot ball mold work. If so this could be crazy cheap, like $100,000.

Steel or aluminum plates could be done with triangles making a geodesic shape.

Expendable porch

There would be a small concrete entry building on top. Around this could be wood porch that people would not stay on during a storm. In Anguilla people build simple wood buildings right on the edge of the beach and just quickly rebuild them after a hurricane. The wood could also support solar panels. These would be taken inside before the storm. Would use User:Vincecate/Migration to minimize the chance of storms.

Other

Should be very strong, very stable, very safe, and not very costly for the amount of living space.

Could use small strong glass to make portals to let some light in and let people see out some.

The heavy things like batteries should be at the very bottom of the inside space (say below a flat internal floor).

Requirements Analysis

• Safety
  • As long as the hanging ballast stays on it should stay upright

• Comfort
  • Should have a gentle motion on normal days but significant response to large waves.

• Cost
  • Hard to imagine anything cheaper than this that has this much space and is safe in the open ocean.

• Pretty
  • Sometimes functional things start to look nice after awhile. And not every one can afford pretty houses.

• Modular
  • Can make individual family sized units. Could have cable under a line of these so they floated together if you connected a sea anchor at one end and a large kite at the other.

• Cargo
  • Since it floats up and down with waves like a boat, should be reasonable to dock a boat next to it.

• Free Floating
  • Yes, could anchor also.

• Scalable
  • Is small enough for one family. The shape could scale to much larger sizes. Geodesic domes scale well.

• Standards

• Mobile
  • Will move through the water easier than most seastead designs but not as easy as a ship.

• Draft
  • Very shallow draft for a seastead if the hanging ballast is winched up. If the waves were small as you approached a harbor it should be safe to winch up the hanging ballast. Could lower the ballast onto the bottom in the harbor. If the ballast could be split into 4 or more pieces it could be stable like a tension leg structure when parked in shallow water.