Buying property in paradise is not quite the same as buying a home in the Midwest. The island has a population of 10,800, and its principal towns are Spanish Wells, the wealthiest colony in the Bahamas; Harbour Island, a resort island with clear water and a pink-tinged beach; Gregory Town, the locale of the island’s Pineapple Festival; Governor’s Harbour, a typical tropical town with history and charm; and Tarpum Bay, an artists’ community where, among others, artists Mal Flanders, an American, and MacMillan Hughes, a Scotsman, went to paint the scenery.

The bay-fronting seaplane hangars, reflecting the life cycle, were reduced to the flat ground from which they had originally risen-and seeds from which bay-fronting condominiums later sprouted, perhaps illustrating the fact that the earth is nothing more than a blank slate on which is written whatever man determines are his present-time needs.

Artificial islands can expand part of an …