An architecture firm reimagined offshore oil rigs as new housing in a world without fossil fuels

XTU architects

• Design firm XTU Architects created a concept for turning offshore oil rigs into housing.

• The concepts imagines a future in which the world is no longer dependent on oil, so the structures can be repurposed.

• Designers experimented with different ideas, including bubble homes and windmills.

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French design firm XTU Architects created a concept turning offshore oil rigs into alternative housing.

The concept is called x_lands, and it imagines a future in which people are no longer dependent on fossil fuels, and massive oil rigs can be used for other purposes. As of 2018, there were 1,172 offshore oil rigs around the world. The need for creative solutions becomes more pressing as experts predict disastrous consequences of climate change within the next 10 years.

Here are some of the designs.

XTU Architects came up with a few different ideas of what the oil rigs could look like, most involving some kind of greenery.

XTU architects

The rigs can be quite large. Many are 400 feet by 250 feet, about the size of two football fields, but some are even larger.

XTU architects

Source: The Week

Designers envision the homes as a “sustainable path for tomorrow,” transforming symbols of fossil fuels and climate change into a more green future.

XTU architects

They each have windmills that would provide energy to the housing setups.

XTU architects

Waterfalls could also generate hydroelectricity.

XTU architects

XTU even created a GIF to give a sense of the rig in action.

XTU architects

Each idea also includes drones, likely for deliveries to the isolated oil rigs.

XTU architects

The designers have a background in sustainable living, with previous concepts including a mixed-used wooden building using solar power in France, and a system to grow algae indoors.

XTU architects

Source: XTU, XTU

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