Just imagine the possibility of having cities that don't just stay in one place, but can float and even move from one place to another. We are used to cities having buildings that stay in once place for decades, and the only way to have another structure take its place is to have it torn down, while another is built in its place. Modern cities have various amenities that make life enjoyable, but are still unable to solve problems of over crowding.

Venice for instance, though not a floating city, represents the fact we can bridge the gap between land and water. Most of Venice is covered by water and the primary means of transport is by Boat. This has also improved its tourism potential and thousands of people flock to the city each just to enjoy the city's spectacular boat ride.

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Floating cities are very flexible and they can be assembled and dismantled easily, and the various parts can travel separately. They can be assembled in a plug and play manner which makes it easy to reassemble them again after they have been dismantled.

Most big cities in the world are built close to water. Places like Lagos, New York, Hong Kong e.t.c are all close to the water and one problem that is common with them is overcrowding, and one solution to this is by building on water. This could also solve the problem of flooding, especially in places that experience heavy rainfall.

Using seasteading to build dwellings on water

The term seasteading is a combination of 2 words: sea and homesteading. It is the process of building habitations on the sea, known as Seasteds.

The term seasteading first was first used in 1981 when a sailor, Ken Neumeyer wrote a book titled: "Sailing the farm", which talks about living sustainably on a boat. The idea then attracted the attention of Patri Friedman, who was a free thinker and a google employee. He soon fell in love with the idea and decided to quit his job at google and went and founded the seastead Institute.

With Investment from Peter Thiel, a libertarian Billionaire, the seasteading Institute was able to develop a prototype for the San Francisco bay, but unfortunately this project did no really yield much fruits.

Over the years, however, the core idea of seasteading, which is to develop a floating city on water gradually caught on, and is even attracting more adherents.

The floating Island Project

The idea behind the floating city project is to develop a floating city with full political autonomy by 2020. It is hoped that the development of this idea will liberate people from oppressive governments, uplift people and liberate them out of poverty.

The new concept is funded by an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) which is becoming a popular means of raising funds to finance projects. The seasteading institute hopes to raise about $60 million to build a dozen buidings by 2020.

The seasteading Institute signed a memorandom of understanding with the French government to develop some independent Islands in the French Polynesia. These islands will be self sustaining and would would feature aquaculture farms, healthcare, medical research facilities, and sustainable energy powerhouses.

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For further reading

Floating Cities, No Longer Science Fiction, Begin to Take Shape
The Floating city project
Seasteading
The world's first floating nation designed to 'liberate humanity from politicians' will appear in the Pacific Ocean by 2020