The design contest had five categories: Overall, Best Picture, Aesthetics, Personality, and Community Choice. (The winners from each category are shown in this post in that particular order, so the first design up top is the Overall winner, the one to the right is Best Picture, and so on.) With prizes ranging from $250 to $1000, the design contest attracted both amateur and professional architects from around the world, as the winners hailed from such far-flung locales as Estonia, Hungary, Brazil, and Minnesota.



Seasteading, a term derived from combining "sea" and "homesteading", is a general term given to the notion of either converting existing structures, such as old boats or disused oil rigs, or custom-building new ones to allow people to live in the middle of the ocean. Generally, this also includes the interrelated goal of establishing a sovereign state on the open seas, away from any existing governmental structures on dry land. Patri Friedman and Wayne Gramlich - whose 1998 article "Seasteading – Homesteading on the High Seas" is generally given credit for popularizing the term - founded the Seasteading Institute in 2008 in order to better organize the seasteading effort.


Perhaps the most famous - and, to some extent, the only - example of successful seasteading is the microstate of Sealand, which started life as the World War II sea fort HM Fort Roughs. Located six miles off the coast of Suffolk, Sealand was occupied by Roy Bates and his family in 1967. Crowning himself Prince Roy, Bates declared the disused fort to be the independent Principality of Sealand. Although the "country" is only the size of about two tennis courts, the Bates family has lived on the desolate fort for much of the last four decades. As one might well imagine, Sealand's history is about as eccentric as it origins, including an attempted invasion by a group of German and Dutch entrepreneurs in 1978, which forced the exiled Prince Roy to take up arms to reclaim his country. (How that hasn't become a movie yet is completely beyond me.)


Sealand's story is well worth reading up on, as it's just about the only topic I know of that can make the differences between de jure and de facto diplomatic recognition absolutely fascinating. Still, the question remains what, if any, long-term viability seasteading has. The success of the Bates family at least suggests it's possible to exist out on the open sea with limited government oversight (although the British government did still handle all the mail sent to Sealand), and the Seasteading Institute has raised over 500,000 dollars in support of their work. Of course, whether that would be enough to build even a fraction of any of these designs is an open question. In the meantime, at least we can take some small comfort in the fact that, should Waterworld ever prove terrifyingly realistic, at least a few people will be well prepared.

[The Seasteading Institute]

If you liked this post, you might want to browse io9's other posts on architecture and concept art.

The history of ocean civilizations isn't particularly bright, but it is remarkable just how many ways people can think of building on the ocean.

What and Where?: Sealand, a platform off Suffolk, England.
What Was The Inspiration? A small abandoned military base after WWII, Sealand was situated in international waters. Former English major Paddy Roy Bates occupied the island and won the resulting legal case in a British court. He named himself King and his son Prince, and the nation-state went on from there. An independent company, HavenCo, invested in Sealand but pulled out shortly thereafter, citing fraud. Their business plan currently consists of trying to get bought by a major tech company.
Why Did It Fail?: Constitutional monarchy may not be the worst form of government, but this micronation was doomed by its size: it is so tiny as to be dependent on the goodwill of other nations. Still, Sealand was certainly the most successful of these projects at establishing sovereignty.

What and Where? The Minerva Reefs, an artificial island south of Tonga
What Was The Inspiration?: Las Vegas real estate magnate Michael Oliver tried building an artificial island in the early seventies by building up sand on a reef as part of a micronation that would be a libertarian paradise. The reefs were submerged at high tide, but it was thought if properly built up they would remain above sea-level.
Why Did It Fail?: Like other sea mounts, the Minerva Reefs came under the jurisdiction of neighboring nations, including hostiles from Tonga. Unwilling to fight, the project was abandoned. In 2003 a new movement of Minervans arose with...a website. As of 2005, Tonga and Fiji were still squabbling over the area.

What and Where? Oceania, an independent horseshore-shaped harbor in the Carribbean.
What Was The Reason? A hopeful libertarian Eric Klien and architect Jim Albea conceived of Oceania in early 1993 after a botched election in Nevada soured them on the U.S. The proposed images inspired the Seasteading Institute's co-founder Wayne Gramlich.
Why Did It Fail? Their website admits "the project ended due to lack of interest in April of 1994," and with an anarcho-capitalist focus, it was only likely to attract a certain type of person – a problem the Seastanding Institute will also be dealing with. Oceania founder Klien is onto a new project called The Lifeboat Foundation that looks to build a nanoshield and otherwise preserve the existence of humanity.

What and Where?: New Utopia, a chain of proposed 'islands' on concrete platforms near the Caymans.
What Was The Inspiration?: The concept's inventor is Howard Turney, who identified himself as Prince Lazarus Long and was prosecuted by the SEC for selling national bonds for $1500 each. Prince Lazarus also attempted to sue one of the people he had worked with for $10 billion, and it's really not a good idea to burn bridges when you're on a seafaring utopia.
Why Did It Fail?: New Utopia has a functioning website and per Prince Lazarus Long is still open for donations, but detailed illustrations of what might have been are about all this project has left. Yes, this project has no chance of being realized, but Friedman summarizes the larger problem presented by New Utopia and the Minerva Reef, saying, "We are very doubtful that any sea mount raised above surface level will remain unclaimed by the existing sovereign nations for very long."

What and Where?: Freedom Ship would circle the globe and stop at international ports of call.
What Was The Inspiration?: CEO Norman Nixon started the project in the late 1990s with the idea of it housing 30,000 people. Visions of a massive population that would make it a full-time cruise ship abound, and appear to have no basis in reality. At one point Nixon openly suggested the project would cost over $10 billion.
Why Did It Fail?: It hasn't entirely flopped yet, but come on. With unrealistic expectations of a casino, a hotel and a full-on commercial district, the Freedom Ship is simply too massive a plan to sustain itself. They have, on the other hand, built a 400 pound model.

In Patri Friedman's proposal for the Ephemerisle, he hopes to learn from the stalled and non-existent projects of the past:

I think that these projects all suffered from too much ambition. They attempted to tackle a difficult problem all at once, rather than dividing it into realistically small pieces. Realistically small, for a country, may not merely mean space, it may also mean time. Rather than attempting to solve the paradox of finding good land that no government wants, or the thorny engineering problems of building economical barge-cities or floating platforms, I propose the Ephemerisle: a temporary, autonomous, anarcho-capitalist community in international waters.

How to Build Your Own Sea-Based Country for Fun and Profit [Gizmodo]