Billionaire Peter Thiel helped fund plans to build the world's first floating city - take a look at the designs

Nearly a decade ago, billionaire Peter Thiel cofounded a nonprofit called Seasteading Institute, and contributed seed funding toward what could become the world's first floating city.

By 2020, the Institute aims to build a dozen floating islands in French Polynesia featuring homes, restaurants, offices, schools, and hotels.

At first, the project's founders imagined the city as a libertarian utopia free of regulation. Joe Quirk, president of the Institute, told Business Insider that his team's vision has evolved beyond that. The group now sees the city as a way to live with rising sea levels, which are expected to increase more than six feet by the end of this century.

Earlier in 2017, the French Polynesian government allowed the Seasteading Institute to start testing in its oceans. Take a look at the ambitious plan below.