Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2013; the plan to raise the first $1 billion and start building in 2014, the $10 billion cost estimate and the 15,000 to 20,000 jobs are plans and figures from that time.
The Freedom Ship is a project that was born around 1990 with the idea of building the largest ship ever made, with room for 40,000 to 50,000 people on board. This floating city aimed at millionaires would contain hospitals, schools, shops, parks and a large airport.
It would be about 1.5 kilometres long (four times the size of the Queen Mary 2) and about 25 storeys high.
The idea is for the ship to spend 70% of its time moored and 30% under way, sailing around the world roughly every two years and turning this floating city into the permanent home of its wealthy residents.
Building this megaproject is estimated to cost around 10 billion dollars, and it would create between 15,000 and 20,000 jobs once completed.
The project stopped being talked about during the crisis, but Freedom Ship is now looking to raise its first 1 billion dollars to start construction, as it says that some investors have regained their appetite and are willing to put money into the project.
We don’t know how much a home inside this floating city might cost, but we assume it won’t be cheap at all.
Further reading
Featured image: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
