Novaoplis is a coastal city that grows much of its own food and recycles nearly all of its water.
"It has ceramic walkways that melt snow and ice. It also has green areas and greenhouses to grow food," said Adam Balliet, 14 and an eighth grader at Franklin Regional Middle School in Murrysville, a member of a team that designed the city of the future.
Balliet's group was one of about 30 schools that participated Saturday in the Pittsburgh Regional Future City Competition at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. Students from Mary Queen of Apostles School in New Kensington won the competition.
"We have been working on this since August. It was worth all of the effort," said Katelin Omecinski, 12, a seventh grader at Mary Queen of Apostles.
Named H30, the team's city is located on the moon in the year 2140 and is home to 10,000 people.
Students this year were asked to build cities that focused on the conservation and reuse of water.
"Environmentalism is always big part of this," said JoAnn Truchan, an air quality engineer with the Allegheny County Department of Health who has been on the Future Cities Committee for seven years.
For most students, the contest involves months of detailed preparation that includes computer modeling, writing essays and building the models.
"It's a neat way for kids to get involved in the imaginative side of science and engineering," Truchan said.
The model of Jacapelasshia was mostly made of recycled water bottles and plastic cake containers. Designed by students from Beaver Falls Middle School, the mythical city of about 98,000 is set 150 years from now and is located on the coast of Italy.
"It's powered by wind and solar power," said Shane Collier, 12, a seventh grader at Beaver Falls Middle School.
Collier and his classmates started working on the project it October. This is the first year the school has participated in the contest.
The cities on display were not confined to conventional locations.
Pial Kota is an underwater city set in the year 2147 and located between the two large islands that make up New Zealand.
"Our city is a fantasy right now. Someday, people will probably be living underwater," said Ally Ayoob, 12, a seventh grader at St. Bede School in Point Breeze, whose students designed Pial Kota.
Students from St. Bede have won the Pittsburgh competition -- and a trip to a national competition in Washington -- for each of the past four years.
If the ocean is a suitable place for a city, so is the moon.
Bella Luna was designed by a team of six girls from Springdale Junior High School.
The city -- whose name means beautiful moon in Italian -- houses 250 people and essentially exists for the mining of ilemenite, a valuable ore.
"It can be used to produce oxygen and make titanium," said Margo Corsetti, 12 a seventh grader at Springdale.
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