Leonia Creature City

This project imagines a speculative city called Leonia, inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Leonia is a city that survives with constant cleaning and controlled routines. The structure made from white marble is vertical, with clean and organized upper levels and lower levels where waste is processed. The city appears calm and efficient, but this order depends on continuous labor that remains unseen. The inhabitants of Leonia are creatures who live and work at the same time. Each creature has a head made entirely of an eye, which allows them to see all dirt. With four arms ending in cleaning pads, the creature’s body is designed like living little cleaning robots. Cleaning is not only work in Leonia, but also a source of energy and life. From the perspective of a creature, daily life follows a clear routine: “I wake up inside my small capsule and begin cleaning my own space. While cleaning, the pads on my arms collect dirt and turn it into energy that keeps me alive. After this, I leave my capsule and move toward a large common capsule. All the creatures living in this structure gather there. Together, we clean this shared space as a group. When the cleaning is finished, we drop all the collected waste into a large pipe located at the bottom of the gathering capsule. The waste disappears downward, and we do not see what happens next. Finally, we move to an open upper space where we spend time together, talk, and rest.” Leonia feels clean, calm, and well-organized. Life flows smoothly. The system works, and most of us do not question it. The city teaches us to look only at what is visible, safe landscape and ignore what problems lie below.