A 60,000 person city is under consideration to be opened in the middle of the sea

The future is here, and it looks like a multi-billion pound turtle.

Italian design studio Lazzarini has proposed plans for a floating, turtle-shaped city that could accommodate up to 60,000 guests and will feature shopping centres, hotels, parks and a plane runway - all of which will be run on solar power.

The floating city, which is named Pangeos and dubbed a ‘terayacht’, would take eight years to build and cost an eye-watering £6.8 billion.

Check out Lazzarini's impressive concept video below:

Pangeos would be a colossal 1,800ft long and 2,000ft wide and if building went ahead, the city would be the largest floating structure ever built.

Lazzarini said in order for the concept to actually be built, an enormous shipyard would have to be created and funds for Pangeos would be raised throughout an NFT-related crowdfunding period.

The design company shared: “The virtual spaces of the watercraft can also be purchased under an NFT collection, and users will be able to collect certain content and access in the virtual properties with their credentials.”

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Credentials for virtual properties will also work as property deposits if Pangeos actually gets built.

Lazzarini added: “A Terayacht needs a Terashipyard: the conception of a similar sized vessel, involves the realisation of a specific shipyard/dam infrastructure that floods to levitate the terayacht when it will be launched.

“The imagined Terashipyard infrastructure is 650 metres wide and 600 metres long, providing direct access to the sea.”

Pangeos' supersized hull will be subdivided into a handful of different blocks and feature nine different bows.

Lazzarini explained: “Pushed from a jet drive transmission, the tera-structure will be able to cruise at a speed of five knots.

“While sailing, the large wings will gain energy from the breaking of the waves and Pangeos will cruise perpetually without emissions around the planet Earth seas.

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“Further, the rooftop area is lined with solar panels, which provide part of the necessary clean energy to power the terayacht.”

Not only will Pangeos’ accommodation include apartments, houses and ‘super villas’, but there’ll even be royal palaces on board.

As for the vessel’s name, Lazzarini revealed: “The terayacht proposal takes its name from Pangea, the supercontinent that existed millions of years ago during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras.

“If realised, the turtle-shaped vessel will become the world's largest floating structure ever built.”

Social media users were bowled over by Lazzarini’s concept, with one person exclaiming: “Wow!”

Other comments included: “Beautiful project,” “Amazing design” and “Unreal!”