Idea: Other Custom Islands
You may have already heard about The World, a man-made archipelago currently being built off the coast of Dubai. When completed, the grouping of islands will resemble, more or less, the whole world, and each individual island can be privately purchased by a billionaire who wants to live surrounded by other billionaires..
It’s a clever gimmick. But for the truly eccentric billionaire, why stop there? For enough money, you could build your own island in the shape of whatever you want. Here are a couple more island ideas I came up with.
For the classic TV lover, the Isle of Lucy:
Of course, the same billionaire should also build Gomerp Isle nearby. But no Gilligan’s Isle. That’s too easy.
And for the practical jokester, here’s Compass Island:
Okay, the practical joke isn’t immediately obvious. Let me show you what it looks like from space:
That’s right, it’s oriented upside-down. It’s sure to disorient pilots flying overhead, and confuse people who come across it on Google Earth.
The idiom-loving billionaire could build islands which spell out the phrase “NO MAN” so that, finally, No Man is an island. The person who made his or her fortune in pancreatic medicine could live on the Islets of Langerhans, in the shape of the human digestive system. Oh, the island-pun possibilities are endless.
Comments
Reminds me of an episode of Beany and Cecil (which I’m not actually old enough to remember…) The crew of the Leakin’ Lena go on a quest to find the Singing Dinasor on her island home - No Bikini Atoll! (Wow!)
The shapely shaped island on the map is in fact bikinied, though…with appropriately placed trees.
Posted by: Sarah | February 1, 2008 1:36 PM
Actually, the Isle of Lucy Jazz & Blues festival is where Peter James Bond, Spinal Tap drummer during the Flower Power period, died in mysterious circumstances. He exploded on stage in a flash of green light, as told by Nigel Tuftnel, guitarist extraordinnaire.
Posted by: Entintado | February 1, 2008 1:43 PM
Here in Holland they came up with a similar plan; an island in the shape of a tulip to protect the country against floods:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/10/asia/testrtrisland11.php
Posted by: Lex | February 1, 2008 1:49 PM
after viewing this, i have a strong urge to play warcraft 2…
Posted by: RicahrdK | February 1, 2008 4:05 PM
But if No Man is an island, what about the Isle Of Man?
Posted by: Cennydd | February 1, 2008 7:47 PM
In the movie The Incredibles, the bad guy lives on Nomanisan Island.
Posted by: Mark Crummett | February 3, 2008 12:48 AM
Gomerp Isle had me genuinely laughing out loud. I’m sick that way.
Posted by: yellojkt | February 3, 2008 7:44 AM
As for The World, I think that they should incorporate a tiny island archipelago in the shape of the world off the coast of the artifical Dubai there. And on that tiny archipelago….
Posted by: RichM | February 3, 2008 6:11 PM
There’s actually a small island off the coast of Massachusetts by the name of Noman’s Land. It was used for target practice in the ’50s and ’60s by the US Air Force, and is now uninhabited.
Posted by: AlexC | February 4, 2008 5:40 PM
There could be a Pen Island…
but that would probably be more of a peninsula than an island.
Posted by: Ken | February 12, 2008 12:35 PM
..creepy. It steals away the idea of “nature” and crushes it under billions
Posted by: stylefrizz | February 14, 2008 3:25 AM
Y’know, Larry Niven’s Ringworld science fiction novels take place on an enormous artificial habitat that has oceans a million miles across, one of which features an archipelago in the shape of Earth’s continents at 1:1 scale.
I think these guys owe Mr Niven some royalties.
Posted by: Jonathan Korman | February 20, 2008 11:13 PM
the compass island is hilarious!
Posted by: Anna | February 22, 2008 11:31 AM
I’d love to see what some of these would look like made in Terragen!
Posted by: mistercliff | February 28, 2008 1:32 PM
You’ve left off a vast archipelago:
Biblioph Isle
Audioph Isle
Angloph Isle
Pedoph Isle (owned by the Archdiocese of Boston)
….
Posted by: Leonie | March 7, 2008 5:46 PM
As a wrestling fan I just want to own an island and call it ‘Parts Unknown’
Posted by: Sam E. | August 15, 2008 6:03 AM
The neat thing about a compass archipelago is that once you have visited N Island, you can truly say you have been to the N of the world.
Posted by: Rags | March 1, 2011 3:09 PM