Slovak designer Lenka Petràkovà has designed a prototype ocean cleaning facility, which earned her the winning prize in an architectural competition for projects posing creative solutions to environmental challenges. The ocean station is conceptualised to be self-sufficient and also adapt and benefit from the ocean’s environment. Made up of interconnected petal-shaped buildings that stand on tentacle-like platforms, these components of the 8th Continent all work together to collect plastic debris from the water surface and transform it into recyclable material. Petràkovà’s prototype also features a research and education centre that studies and showcases marine environments, a greenhouse where plants are grown through hydroponic cultivation, and living facilities for the station’s researchers.