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This living machine ship called Arctic Harvester is the brainchild of French architecture students Meriem Chabani, Etienne Chobaux, John Edom, and Maeva Leneveu.. They were inspired to design the floating community during unrelated studies on Greenland.

The foursome were captivated by the nation's odd juxtaposition of natural resource abundance. "An iceberg is an oasis [of fresh water]," explains the design team. "We had what seemed to us a massive resource on one hand, and a massive lack—no local produce—on the other."

Arctic Harvester capitalizes on the abundance of fresh-water icebergs by capturing them with its circular shape. Covered in solar panels, it makes the most of the endless summertime sun. These students believe that these two things are nearly enough to fuel hydroponic gardens that could feed a crew of 800. In darker winter months, they suggest the Harvester draw power from an onboard osmotic system, which generates energy from mixing salt and fresh water.

"The vessel as a whole is designed to drift with the currents that carry the icebergs during the force of their lives, often circling on the ocean currents between Greenland and the coast of Labrador for up to two years, before heading south past the east coast of the United States," says team member Meriem Chabani.

Together with Polarisk Analytics, the four are only just beginning to look for investors to make the first generation prototypes.

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