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)

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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 amen...

ana034: Designing Liberland | Tim's Porcfest 2021 Speech