Cloud City

No, this has nothing to do with Lando Calrissian, but an architectural firm called Studio Lindfors.

Cloud City is a response to a recent design competition called What if New York City... where architects and city planners were asked:

"What if New York City were hit by a Category 3 hurricane? What if the most densely residential city in the country loses hundreds of thousands of homes in a few hours? What if millions are left with nowhere to live, to work, or to go to school? What if subways flood, streets close, and whole neighborhoods are submerged by up to 23 feet of ocean water and battered by 130 mile-per-hour winds? What if New Yorkers need a place to live during years of reconstruction?"

If we continue to have density issues on land, why not move it to the sky? There could be some downfalls with this idea (such as blocking of sunlight) and maybe some kinks that would need to be worked out (like waste disposal, etc.), but it is an ambitious idea and definitely an option as soon as we get out of the traditional thinking about ways of planning.

Read more about Cloud City on BLDGBLOG.

Examples of 'Cities in the Sky' from contemporary fiction - Laputa: Castle in the Sky & Bespin Cloud City from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

I have always imagined this to be a possibility in the future, when technology could permit such a migration. Seems very sci-fi, but could very well be a reality in the not-so-distant future.