ana034: Designing Liberland | Tim's Porcfest 2021 Speech

Tim presented our entry to the Liberland International Design Competition at Porcfest 2021.

His talk covered:

• The geographical and political history of Liberland
• Site and ecology, ground conditions, flooding
• Energy, Water, Wastewater Infrastructure
• Transportation
• Our proposed site layout
• Blockchain based development incentivisation and infrastructure DAO’s
• THE LIBERTARIUM
• Q&A

Download Slideshow (PDF)

Our entry to the Liberland Design Competition (download PDF)

Use hashtag #ana034 to reference this episode in a tweet, post, or comment.

View full show notes at https://anarchitecturepodcast.com/ana034.

----more----Intro (1:55)

• Liberland is not developable land…
• Our entry to the Liberland design competition
  • We submitted an engineering report to an architecture design competition
  • Honourable Mention Award
• Porcfest
  • NHExit venue
  • Over 2,000 people
  • Some real heavyweights
  • Shout outs
  • A 2 hour conversation about privatizing public space (who would listen to 2 hours of.. oh wait)
• Winners have been announced
• Summary of presentation
• Next episode teaser

Download PDF of Slideshow

Presentation (14:37)

• SLIDE 3 – History of Liberland (14:50)
  • Land Parcel between Serbia and Croatia
  • Border dispute
  • Croatian Border Control
• SLIDE 4 – Hydrological History (16:36)
  • Story of the Danube River
  • Pannonian Sea
  • Flood basin from Alps snow melt
• SLIDE 5 (17:23)
  • Historical flows
  • Canals and hydropower reduced flow
  • 1894 – Austro-Hungarian Empire dredged canal
• SLIDE 6 Political History (18:50)
  • Liberland originally part of Hungary
  • WWI, 1918 – borders redrawn to create Yugoslavia
• SLIDE 7 (19:16)
  • 1945 – Yugoslavia became a Federated Republic
• SLIDE 8 (20:12)
  • Map of property deed registrations
  • Border established down center of Danube river
• SLIDE 9 (21:07)
  • Which center?
• SLIDE 10 (21:31)
  • 1990’s – Yugoslavia broke up, Croatia declared independence
  • Brutal war, ethnic cleansing, bad stuff
  • Liberland encompassed within Serbia during war
  • Boundary not resolved
• SLIDE 11 (23:02)
  • Present day disputed boundary
  • Vit Jedlicka claimed Liberland
  • Diplomatic efforts for recognition
  • Guy in a pickup truck – Liberland License Plate
• SLIDE 12 Liberland Design Competition (24:31)
  • We felt obligated to enter
• SLIDE 13 (25:06)
  • Facebook post of winning entries – click here for links to formal announcements with full resolution posters for winning entries
• SLIDE 14 (25:29)
  • 8th grade science fair project, or award winning architectural manifesto?
  • Competition forces you to look at Liberland as a real site
  • We dug deep on site analysis
• SLIDE 15 Design Team (26:16)
  • Tim Brochu, Principal of Adra Architecture and co-host of Anarchitecture Podcast
  • Joe Brochu, Mechanical Engineer and co-host of Anarchitecture Podcast
  • Goshe King and Joe Green, Mechanical Engineers from Angineering Tech Podcast
  • Car Campit, Civil Engineer from Timeline Earth Podcast
  • John Ellis III, Architect who interviewed Tim on our episode 28
  • Palmer Ferguson, Architect
  • Ryan Myers, Architect
  • Andy Boenau, Transportation Planner, author, and host of the podcasts “Urbanism Speakeasy” and “How We Get Around” (https://www.andyboenau.com/)
  • Mat Slaughter, Engineer
• SLIDE 16 (28:16)
  • Why hasn’t Liberland been developed?
• SLIDE 17 (28:31)
  • Wetlands
  • Good reasons to protect wetlands
  • Prevent eutrophication from fertilizers
• SLIDE 18 (29:26)
  • Cute otter
  • Ugly sturgeon
  • Large fish spawning ground
  • RAMSAR – Wetlands of International Importance
• SLIDE 19 (30:40)
  • Liberland floods
  • 8 meters (24 ft) of flooding
• SLIDE 20 (31:37)
  • Topographical analysis of flood levels
  • Half of Liberland underwater during recent 100 year floods
  • Import fill?
• SLIDE 21 (32:42)
  • Eutric Fluvisol, aka “Mud”
  • Soil good for growing things, unless you want to grow a city
• SLIDE 22 (33:49)
  • Why hasn’t Liberland been developed?
• SLIDE 23 (33:54)
  • Because Liberland is not developable land
• SLIDE 24 (34:13)
  • Next best idea is Seasteading, in the middle of the ocean
  • Liberland’s not looking too bad!
• SLIDE 25 Opportunities for Autonomy (34:26)
  • International waterway
  • Investment in economically depressed region
  • International multi-cultural society
  • Win-Win solutions
  • Infrastructure redundancy – no one nation can cut the cord
  • Environmental stewardship
• SLIDE 26 Transportation (38:18)
  • Road connection through Croatia
  • Riverboats – passenger and freight
  • Trains – bus service to nearby stations
  • Airports
  • Avoiding border control – international terminal on the river?
• SLIDE 27 (41:41)
  • Seaplane landing on the river
  • Helicopters
  • Eurovelo cycle network – cycle to France
• SLIDE 28 (43:05)
  • Gondola transit – not quite flying cars, but close
  • eco-tourism
  • Gondola from international terminal?
  • Very scenic
• SLIDE 29 Energy (44:05)
  • Self-sufficiency
  • Solar PV – poor solar exposure
  • Save sunlight for the plants
  • Bifacial panels, “Floatovoltaics” (Yes, they actually call it that)
  • Wind – not enough wind
  • Hydroelectric – needs height differential
  • “Run of the River” – not much power
  • Tidal power generation
  • Geothermal – underground hot rocks produce steam
  • Biogas – Sewage Treatment Plant generates enough gas to power the sewage treatment plant
  • Diesel – in early stages
  • Natural Gas Power Station
  • Nuclear – Paks facility in Hungary
  • Micro-nuclear
• SLIDE 30 (50:00)
  • Power Lines
  • Redundancy from Croatia, Serbia, maybe Hungary
  • 120,000 population target
  • The Power of Freedom
  • Among the most interconnected areas
  • Fiber Optic – along power line routes (OPGW cable)
  • Energy must be delivered via road, boat, pipeline, or wire
  • Bury a cable down the river from Hungary? Risky.
• SLIDE 31 (54:14)
  • Energy mix over 50 years buildout
• SLIDE 32 (54:56)
  • Heating and Cooling
  • Cogeneration
  • Centralized Heating Plant
• SLIDE 33 (55:33)
  • Water – plenty of water
  • Wastewater – treatment required
  • Containerised WWTP
• SLIDE 34 (56:15)
  • Would other designers use our analysis? We hope so.
  • Our Design
  • Even though this is a small place, we’re gonna make it smaller
  • The Tom Woods Woods nature preserve
• SLIDE 35 (57:41)
  • Developed areas on high ground
  • Decentral Park
  • Walkable city
  • Whowillbuildthe Road
  • Marina and Wharf
• SLIDE 36 (59:35)
  • Transportation Hub and road to Croatia
  • Unnamed Heliport
  • Croatian Border Control
  • Border Controls are Stupid
  • Dr. Ron Paul Medical Center
  • Emergency Services
  • Dispute resolution agencies (not police)
  • Eugen von Bohm Bawerk Waterworks
  • John Maynard Keynes Sewage Treatment Plant (full of crap)
  • Power station and substation
  • Gondola stations
  • Deep foundations, concrete piles
  • Gondolas – expensive, but a tourist attraction
  • Urban gondolas and cable cars
  • Bike path is right of way, build up roads above flood level
• SLIDE 37 (1:04:24)
  • Masterplan with no zoning
  • Incentives for density
  • Blockchain based Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
  • Limits on homesteading
    • Encirclement
    • Technological Unit
  • Limits on parcel size
  • Developers pay in to DAO, paid out based on built floor space
  • Who governs the development process?
  • Liberland corporation may have prior claim
  • Homesteading resolves disputes between competing claims
  • High demand makes technological unit small
  • Liberland as a Free Private City
  • Incentives for creating public space and amenities
  • Environmental mitigation – build goodwill
  • A latecomer catches up
  • Enter the Eurozone? Probably not.
• SLIDE 38 Infrastructure DAO (1:15:19)
  • Financing large scale head-end infrastructure
  • Investment bond – interest rate increases with population
  • Balance risk between investors, service provider, and users
• SLIDE 39 Napredak (1:18:39)
  • Land parcel in Apatin, Serbia
  • Floating Man Festival
  • Port for freight and passenger transport via riverboat
• SLIDE 40 THE LIBERTARIUM (1:19:26)
  • Museum of Liberty
  • Full Dome Theater
  • 3D visualizations of future developments
  • Foot in the door to bring business into the region, establish goodwill
• SLIDE 41 (1:20:54)
  • Adra Architecture
  • Tim specializes in residential gondolas
• SLIDE 42 (1:21:41)
  • Facebook link QR code
  • We got an Honourable Mention
  • Tom Woods Seal of Approval
• Questions (1:23:02)
• (1:23:05) Some towns neglect maintenance – how do you finance ongoing maintenance?
  • Strong Towns – Growth Ponzi Scheme made explicit
  • Infrastructure DAO could align incentives for long term maintenance
• (1:24:33) A lost opportunity?
  • The Heliport shall remain unnamed
• (1:24:59) Squatter states, staging, and skepticism
  • Utah
  • Kowloon Walled City
  • What’s step 1?
  • We started with some wilder ideas
  • Suspension bridge town
  • Phase 1: Houseboats, tourism, marina, small settlements
  • Head end infrastructure – 35kV power line
  • >1,000 people – water treatment plant
  • Initial stages – wells and septic
  • Many people willing to contribute
  • 600,000 applicants for citizenship
  • A small percentage of 600k will be willing to rough it
  • “This whole thing is an exercise in skepticism”
  • Ecotourism hub
  • Blockchain mining
• (1:32:18) Would the infrastructure be privately owned and blockchain based?
  • We hope so
  • Free Private Cities model – corporation takes ownership of most common services
  • Sandy Springs, GA – city hall just administers contracts and tenders for private providers
• (1:35:03) Corporate city with explicit contract and recourse
  • Half of Florida is private golf communities
  • Manchester, NH – Amoskeag Mill Company
  • Company bought up all surrounding land parcels
  • Water powered mechanical mills
  • Layout – river, mills, apartments, commercial strip, houses, mansions
• (1:39:33) Reston, VA – “It doesn’t have a city government”
  • Suburb of DC, owned by a corporation
  • Walkable
  • BTW Liberland has no car traffic
  • Every urbanist’s wet dream
  • Disneyworld – another great example
• (1:41:02) What’s the point of this competition?
  • Publicity, investment based on design ideas
  • There needs to be some degree of planning
• (1:42:18) How did they determine the winners?
  • Panel of judges
  • Patrik Schumacher
  • 2015 competition
  • Vit Jedlicka is interested in the architecture
• (1:44:20) What were the prizes?
  • Awarded in Merits – Liberland’s cryptocurrency
  • A winner will help design Napredak
• (1:45:11) How do you move to Liberland?
  • Nobody lives there now, Croatian border control trying to keep it that way
  • Croatia: the boundary dispute does not involve terra nullius
• (1:46:34) A lot of issues, all difficult to solve
  • “You have to solve a land dispute in the Balkans”
  • There is existing shipping
  • You need billions of dollars of institutional money
  • Alternative offer: Liber-land swap
  • Liberland protects wetland preserve, builds somewhere else
  • “Best of luck – I want to be wrong!”

Links/Resources

Our entry to the Liberland Design Competition (download PDF)

Click image to download PDF of posters Dave Smith: “Oh look guys, that’s my favorite architecture firm! And my favorite architecture themed podcast! Well, “built environment” themed podcast actually, because they don’t just talk about architecture. In fact, you would think that they would spend more time talking about architecture. But they don’t. They talk about other stuff. But also some architecture.” (transcribed by Joe, who was not present at Porcfest and has no idea what Dave actually said or what he was pointing at.)

• Anarchitecture-led Team Awarded Honourable Mention in Liberland’s Second International Architectural Competition
• Free Republic of Liberland Home Page

Episodes Mentioned

• ana031: Liberland Design Competition 2020 | Daniela Ghertovici Interview
• Episodes with Team Members:
  • ana021: AGENDA 21!!! | Friends Against Government (renamed to Timeline Earth)
  • ana028: Anarchitecture 101 | John Ellis Interviews Tim
  • ana032: HVAC vs. COVID: Will Schools Spread Airborne Infection? | with Goshe and Joe from Angineering.Tech
• Episodes with Jurors
  • PATRIK SCHUMACHER SERIES (episodes 9-12)
  • ana018: Startup Cities with Adam Hengels and Patrik Schumacher
• Other Episodes Mentioned
  • ana025: Free Private Cities | Titus Gebel Interview
  • ana008: Way Beyond the Roads | The Tom Woods Show Ep. 802 plus Post-game
  • ana033: Tim Battles Town Hall | Tom Woods Interviews Tim | Short Term Rental Ordinance

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