Summary: In this unprecedented moment of global crisis, we have the opportunity to collectively rethink the values, agendas, and practices guiding the design of our built environments. As countries converge on drastic social control measures that aim to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, the fundamental infrastructures of every societal function system have been undermined and threatened with collapse, or at best, an unstable future (global interdependence, markets, supply chains, personal and collective liberty, healthcare, livelihood, governance, etc). There is a newfound urgency to activate novel agendas to counteract this new normal. Liberland’s agenda is an ideal contender.
Liberland, the world’s newest micronation, is an incubator and role model for a society founded on the ideology of liberty and principles of anarcho-capitalism. It is founded on the idea that the societal movement towards individual and collective freedom, prosperity, and peace will not emerge through bigger governments with increased control, but rather through the distributed intelligence of autonomous innovators and agents of change through “the politics of discourses”.
Liberland is a country, a city, a network of communications, a futuristic society, a utopian vision, a globally distributed network of intelligences, and a database of societal visions that can counteract the global chaos unfolding in the wake of the pandemic. Liberland’s motto, “To Live and Let Live”, is expressed in its aspirations towards individual and collective freedom, autonomy, minimal governance, voluntarism, charity, fair free markets, non-aggression, non-coercion, diplomatic goodwill, radical innovation, entrepreneurship, and ecological responsibility, all supported by a distributed and transparent peer-to-peer network (blockchain).
Description: Liberland invites you to challenge the contemporary urban and architectural design status quo by responding to Liberland’s fundamental values and to envision the full design potential for this new micronation. Your proposed design must be agile and highly responsive to free-market forces that are open to perpetual evolution. Your proposal must also include design scenarios that creatively engage the theoretical, social, and technological implications of distributed intelligence systems, such as Blockchain. On a functional level, Liberland has no zoning regulations or municipal restrictions. It has no pre-established design culture. The field is wide open for innovation on every scale. Liberland’s new architecture will be absolutely vital to its survival, success and advancement towards its aspirations.
Rather than purely fantastical or artistic schemes, Liberland seeks radically creative, yet mature proposals for a fertile, high-density city-nation of the 21st century that is responsive to its advanced network society. Participants should approach this competition as a real-world design challenge: A lucid development process for a multi-stage evolution towards a fully functional, architecturally sophisticated, and intelligently adaptive city. Participants are free to propose scenarios that are both design focused and socially speculative, engaging the broader economic, political, social and technological projections on the future of Liberland.
Your proposal must include Napredak, Liberland’s “gateway” for visitors arriving via boat in the region. Napredak is an approximately 5-hectare zone within Apatin, situated approximately 10km south of Liberland along the Danube River. It is where Liberland docks its boats, including the boat “Bitcoin Freedom”. It is also the site of the “Floating Man” summer festival (similar to the Burning Man festival). Your vision for Napredak will be considered for near-future development.
In summary, you are invited to position your design proposal in response to the following theoretical premise, addressing all its explicit parameters in your designs. The vitality of a fertile network society is dependent on the presence of three stabilizing factors: the radical autonomy of its constituent agents (liberty), a commitment to an unregulated affiliation (free markets), and a transparent distributed peer-to-peer network (blockchain).
Detailed information is available at the project website.