Floating City
© András Gyõrfi / via SeaSteading Competition
Cities come in all shapes and sizes, but can they float?

PayPal founder Peter Thiel recently invested $1.25 million to try to make that happen. By offering support to the Seasteading Institute, he has jump-started efforts to create city-state communities afloat on ocean platforms. In 2009, the institute held a 3D design competition to help people visualize what these sea-bound communities may look like (see photos above and below).

The structures will be 12,000 tons, diesel-powered and carry around 270 people per unit, as reported by Details Magazine. The idea is to link the structures together to create ocean metropolises equipped to accommodate millions of people.

Floating City_2
© Marko Järvela / via SeaSteading Competition
But here's the kicker: Thiel hopes to place the structures beyond the coastal jurisdiction of existing countries and their laws. Call it a libertarian pipe dream if you will, but he hopes to experiment with different types of government styles. In some cases, he wishes to start up city-states without minimum wages and welfare, with fewer weapons restrictions and "looser" building codes, he says. Seasteading already has a team working on the legal issues involved.

Floating pilots, which will include office buildings, will be placed off the coast of San Francisco as early as next year.

Floating City_3
© Emerson Stepp / via SeaSteading Competition
Investors such as Thiel believe the city-states offer an opportunity to better humanity and its right to true democracy, while critics point out executing the plan would be a logistical and environmental nightmare devoid of proper urban planning.

Either way, it looks like the project is transitioning from being a thing of the future to a thing of the present.

Would you get on board with a floating city?