If you’ve ever gotten bored with the book you’re reading on the beach and wished you could just run into a seaside library for a new one, here’s the building of your dreams: a stunning modern repository of books so close to the sea, it’s practically on the water. Vector Architects positioned this monumental concrete structure right on the edge of China’s Bohai Bay, about three hours from Beijing, with massive glass doors opening the reading space right onto the sand.

Oriented to direct nearly all of its views to the water, the library feels strong and solid, anchored to the sand. Of course, it’s hard not to worry about all of those books being ruined in the event of a severe storm. It’s not clear whether the architects have taken any particular precautions against potential disasters, but it certainly looks like a beautiful place to sit and read, especially when the lower doors are all open to the breezes coming off the water.

Steel roof trusses support the massive canopy roof, which curves down into the wall at the rear of the building. Upper-level benches and tables look out a strip of fixed windows, and a stairway leads to a small rooftop patio. In contrast, a meditation room is  insulated from the rest of the space, the only windows a handful of skylights carefully directing natural light.

The building feels like a real-life version of a series of storm-proof fantasy beach structures by Dionisio Gonzalez – architecture with the heft and wherewithal to stand up to the elements when other buildings would be swept away.

Thousands of decommissioned oil rigs rotting in waters all over the globe could get a new sense of purpose as diving resorts, cruise ship port-of-calls, recreation destinations, bio-habitats or even autonomous micro-nations. Some of these concepts tow the rigs to more desirable locations – including right up to the shores of major cities. As sea levels approach catastrophic levels, some see reclaimed oil rig architecture and other floating structures as the only viable way to survive, but they’re also a great way to take advantage of beautiful oceanic settings.

Oil Rig Reclaimed As A Scuba Diving Resort

Here’s one concrete, finished example of an oil rig transformed for a new use: the Seaventures Dive Resort in the Celebes Sea between the Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia offers access to a beautiful coral reef, making it a popular spot for divers. The owners purchased the rig in 1988 and towed it to its current location to take advantage of the natural attractions. The 25-room hotel retains its industrial feel, making no attempt to be luxurious, and offers package deals that include meals, dives, equipment rentals and boat transportation.

Aquatic Village Proposal

The minimalist approach definitely works for a small hotel, but what if we wanted to turn an old oil rig into an attractive community that rivals any found on land? This proposal uses a rig as the basis of a ‘livable hub’ powered by solar energy, wind turbines and tidal energy collectors. The general public would live in the units located above the surface, while specialized researchers like marine biologists could work in underwater labs.

The Noah Oasis: Vertical Bio-Habitats

The Noah Oasis concept reclaims disused oil rigs for three purposes: a short-term strategy of absorbing spilled oil, a medium-term strategy of providing a habitat for marine life and migrating birds, and a long-term strategy as a shelter from future disasters when sea levels rise to a disastrous degree. Floaters at the end of the oil pipes would automatically react in the event of an oil spill, rising to the surface to start cleaning it up. It also puts that crude to an interesting use: collected oil will be converted into a plastic catalyst for coral reef growth, transported back to the pipes to encourage reef growth on the surface. “The plastic will become the building material of the plastic-twig structure with the help of 3D printing and the injector.”

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Dangling precariously from cliffs, tumbling down hillsides or jutting out over the water, these beautiful seaside homes feature mirage-like rooftop infinity pools, diving boards that lead nowhere, terrifying drop-offs and terraces that seem to float.

Mirage House with Rooftop Infinity Pool

The glimmer of water on the rooftop of this incredible home on Greece’s Tinos Island seems like a mirage at first, encompassing the entirety of a flat, rectangular surface. Come closer and you’ll see that it’s not a mirage at all – it’s an infinity pool on the cantilevered rooftop of a modern home by Kois Associated Architects. The home was designed to blend into the Aegean Sea so as to be virtually undetectable, with the visible parts of the front of the home mimicking the surrounding stone.

Dangling Modular Cliff House

All that can be seen of this five-level modular home from ground level is the very top portion. The rest dangles in rather terrifying fashion over the roiling water, producing an effect that’s worthy of a Bond villain. Cliff House by Modscape Concept makes use of a challenging plot of land on a rocky portion of the southwest coast of Victoria in Australia. Each floor has glass walls for maximum views, and the whole thing is anchored to the cliff with engineered steel pins.

Actually Affordable Elevated Ocean Views

It’s rare that elevated homes with stunning views of the sea are actually affordable, but Canadian firm Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects has created a modest timber box that juts out over a bedrock cliff to make it seem as if it’s floating. Clad in wood to blend into the environment, the 960-square-foot cabin has a galvanized steel frame skeleton and diagonal planks supported by joists to eliminate the need for interior cladding.

Retrofuturistic Mushroom House

Sam Bell’s retrofuturistic Mushroom House is tucked away next to the Pacific Ocean in the cliffs of San Diego, its round design offering panoramic views, a concrete sea wall and elevated living area keeping it from being inundated by the waves. And if you’re wondering just how the owners even access it, there’s an elevator stretching up the cliff face to a larger home above.

Dizzying Drop-Off House Design

What looks like a diving board jutting out of the end of this concrete house in Japan by KA Architects leads nowhere but a cascading rocky cliff, so you probably don’t want to actually jump. The all-white home is all about sharp lines and stark contrast, with no transition between the street and the outdoor room that can be seen on the top level.

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According to futurists, the likelihood that humans will one day have to move off of the land and into the oceans at some point is high. Population growth, climate change and limited resources could eventually push us into the waters that cover more than 70 percent of the planet. The Seasteading Institute wants to be prepared for that eventuality, so in 2009 they sponsored the Seastead Design Contest. The contest asked for designs that imagined permanent, stationary structures that would allow for long-term ocean living. These five designs came out on top.

Grand Prize: The Swimming City

(all images via: The Seafaring Institute)

The Swimming City is a vibrant seastead design from András Gyõrfi that looks like a section of a traditional city that was cut from its surroundings and relocated to the sea. The traditional architecture and familiar city structure give it the type of familiarity that would make it easy to live in for former land-dwellers. Homes, businesses, and public recreation spaces all co-exist happily. The city has a number of helicopter pads for easy access from the air and a central dock for water access. The “city” is actually the size of a single neighborhood, so imagine a network of these communities, each supported on its own four pillars just above the water, forming a true city of the sea.

Winner in Personality: Rendering Freedom

The contest judges decided that this design by Anthony Ling had the most personality. The Rendering Freedom design is not only about building a city for today, but about leaving open the possibilities for growth and change in the future. Modular construction on a stationary platform would mean that changing and adding to the existing buildings would be simple. An inventive elevator system would take visitors and residents from the floating docks at sea level to the raised “ground” level of the city platform. The buildings themselves are even further elevated to help protect them from large waves.

Winner in Best Picture: Oasis of the Sea

If it were on the land, this design could easily be mistaken for an upscale resort. The designer, Emerson Stepp, wanted to convey a sense of luxury to help ease the adjustment from living on land to life at sea. The Oasis was meant to harmonize with the surroundings without simply fading into the background. The seastead’s architecture is designed to withstand the incredibly harsh environment that would plague an ocean colony, but the lush vegetation and organic design would help to make residents feel less like they live on a platform in the middle of a strange environment.

Winner in Aesthetic Design: SESU Seastead

Designed with sea-worthiness in mind, this enclosed city from designer Marko Järvela uses thermal and functional zoning in its layered interior to keep utility consumption down. Passive solar design principles are also in use to take advantage of the ocean sunshine. Inside the enclosure, extensive vegetation cleans the air, improves the aesthetics of the seastead and provides food for the residents.

Community Choice Winner: Refusion

Designed as an ocean-bound research facility, Refusion won the community choice award in the Seastead contest. From the five-man Team 3DA, Refusion challenges the public to think differently about seasteads in general. They don’t have to be industrial and boring or outlandishly futuristic; they can be functional and beautiful, and they come with a unique set of advantages. Being out in the sea means near-complete freedom and independence. For ocean researchers, a permanent seastead research environment affords an unprecedented amount of data collection opportunities.