Freedom Ship
| Freedom Ship | |
|---|---|
|
|
| General information | |
| Type | Mixed use (casino, education, hotel, office and residential) |
| Location | Palm Harbor, Florida, United States |
| Coordinates | 28°5′2″N 82°45′14″W / 28.08389°N 82.75389°W |
| Height | |
| Roof | 106.7 m (350 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Size | 1,371 meters long |
| Floor count | 25 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Freedom Ship International |
| Other information | |
| Seating capacity | 33,000 units (18,000 living units, 3,000 commercial units, 2,400 time-share units and 10,000 hotel units) |
Freedom Ship was a floating city project initially proposed in the late 1990s.[1] It was so named because of the "free" international lifestyle facilitated by a mobile ocean colony, though the project would not have been a conventional ship, but rather a series of linked barges.
The Freedom Ship project envisioned a 1,317m (0.818 miles)-long integrated city[2] with condominium housing for 50,000 people,[2] an airstrip to accommodate turboprop aircraft, duty-free shopping and other facilities, large enough to require rapid transit. The complex would circumnavigate the globe continuously, stopping regularly at ports of call.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Construction
Despite early press coverage on NPR's Weekend Edition and Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering, the project has seen few recent developments. Although the initially stated in-service date was to be 2001, no construction had begun as of November 2011.[citation needed]
Freedom Ship International initially estimated the net cost for construction to be USD 6 billion in 1999. However, by 2002, estimates had risen to USD 11 billion.[3] The latest update to the corporation's website, in July 2008, was a press release explaining the difficulty of obtaining reliable financial backing, and as of 2008[update] Freedom Ship International has not released the names of any major sponsors.[citation needed]
[edit] Similar projects
Other projects, such as the ResidenSea, have similarly attempted to create mobile communities, though they have conservatively limited themselves to the constraints of conventional shipbuilding. In regards to the economic flexibility and "freedom" created by such mobile settlements, these projects could be considered a realization of the avante-garde Walking City concept from 1964, by British architect Ron Herron of the group Archigram.
[edit] See also
- Seasteading, a concept applying homesteading to the ocean, is a related process.
- Mobile offshore base
[edit] Citations
- ^ Robert Trigaux, "Water World", sfgate.com, from St. Petersburg Times, Jul. 5, 1999.
- ^ a b Floating Cities at How Stuff Works; a discussion of floating cities using Freedom Ship as its example
- ^ a b "Floating City". NPR Weekend Edition. 13 April 2002. http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/features/2002/apr/freedomship/.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Collected Critical Comments on the Freedom Ship project by Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute
- "Floating Utopias", a critical look at the project and associated utopian schemes by China Miéville for In These Times
- Floating Cities, Islands and States A paper written by Alexander Bolonkin from a physics perspective using Freedom Ship as an example and providing technical information
- Discovery Channel documentary
