[In]tangible International Conference - UNIBO - XXXVIII PhD Cycle in Architecture and Design Cultures, Department of Architecture, University of Bologna

Title of the Intervention : Exploring the Rise of the Floating City Paradigm - Towards a Maritime Climatopia? - Co-signed by Alessandro delli Ponti UNIFE IDAUP & Isabella Traeger POLIMI DAStU. The presentation focused on the Seasteading movement’s quest to build libertarian micro-nations in the High Seas, as a way of unpacking the socio-spatial paradigm of the floating city within the context of climate change. The libertarian fascination with this typology can be read as an exacerbated product of the Western mythicisation of maritime space as space of both freedom and utopian experimentation, and frictionless (neo)colonialism, globalisation and capitalism. A short overview of the floating city paradigm since the 1960s is proposed, individuating four main socio-spatial categories: the amphibious city, the insular megastructure, the archipelagic megastructure and the pod. This historical overview enables to highlight how Metabolism and Seasteading position themselves as maritime techno-determinist ‘climatopias’ geared towards climate change adaptation and/or mitigation. The paper highlights the dangers of such narratives using localised climate security to transcend the need to confront climate change globally. Ultimately, their quest to produce an artificial floating ‘environment’ aimed at human survival reveals a preoccupying escapism, as it postulates a condition of permanent catastrophe.