Self-sufficiency

Japan's N-Ark has revealed plans for an incredibly ambitious floating city that would host tourism, medical facilities, and even space rockets. Named Dogen City, the self-sufficient project would provide power, food and water for up to 40,000 people.

Forget about merely living off-grid, the future is about living offshore, full-time. The Sovereign Ships Sphinx 40 has been conceived as an on-water homestead capable of producing its own power, harvesting its own fresh water and growing food.

If recent geopolitical events have you wanting to run for the hills, or you'd simply like to escape from the trappings of civilization, Utah's Cliff Haven looks an ideal place to escape from it all. The self-sufficient off-grid home is currently up for sale in a closed auction.

If humanity is to tackle the problems of a growing global population, increased urbanization, scarcity of resources and climate change, we have to rethink the way we live. The ReGen Village is aimed at doing this, by being built to be self-sustaining from the ground up.

An Austrian company is building trailer homes that are designed not only to be compact, but with self-sufficiency in mind, too. Wohnwagon's trailers provide 25 sq m (269 sq ft) of living space and have their own off-grid electricity, water and waste systems.

Award winning architect John Lin and his colleagues at Hong Kong University are designing a traditional rural China for the future!

Italian industrial designer Michele Puzzolante has come up with a conceptual floating luxury hotel suite he claims could be entirely self-powering thanks to the dye-sensitized solar cells which would be integrated into the vessel's walls.

Bosco Verticale is a planned 10,000 square meter urban forest, which will grow upwards.

Japan’s Sapporo Breweries is launching the world’s first beer produced using malt made 100 percent from “space barley,” which is the fourth generation descendant of the Haruna Nija malting barley that was kept in space for five months during 2006.

A team led by Zhong Lin Wang at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a micron-scale self-sufficient generator.

September 7, 2007 In a development that marks another step towards the vision of a sustainable, clean future for home power generation, UK company ITM Power has