Life in Futuristic Floating Pods: Can Design Harness Tidal Power?

Here's your flight of architectural fancy for the day: GRO Architects' concept for a series of walkways and public spaces, nested inside power-generating, tidal turbines. Say what? As Inhabitat writes:

[The] floating walkways are designed to extend from piers and use the river current to spin their large turbines. Power would be generated silently while the passersby could also use the spaces within the network of turbines for walkways, public spaces, or even residences as the project's title suggests...

...In this newest version, the walkways are more like enclosed passageways inside of the swirling turbines, and a sleek and technical look has been given to the central connecting modules that act as green spaces for trees.

The design was originally produced for Metropolis Magazine's 2009 Next Generation Design Competition, but has been updated since its initial design.

Party-poopers will point out that tidal generators rely on extremely strong currents--and any tidal power generator that churns out large amounts of electricity would either be so deeply submerged, or wracked by such strong currents, that you couldn't walk inside one without getting violently seasick.

Bah! Just take your Dramamine!

It still looks deliciously futuristic, so just enjoy:

Check out more pictures at Inhabitat.