Floating Houses: Embracing a Brave New "Water" World.

Recently, the East Coast endured weather extremities that left flooding devastation for many. Hurricane "Irene" was called the "Perfect Storm" that only comes around every 100 years. OK, so this storm that left some with out electricity, under water, and some even homeless, comes around once in a blue moon and is just one of those things we put up with, occasionally; or is it? There are people who live and work  in areas where they never experienced flooding until recently. In the past few years I watched as some of these individuals gradually watched as there buildings became submerged in water from torrential rains. First year, it was 4 inches, next 8 inches, then 1 foot and after Irene, straight to an entire basement (7 feet) under water. Maybe it's time to rethink design.



Dura Vermeer

Well, the Dutch have already been on top of this. Places like Holland, which is located in low lying areas have had to deal with rising sea levels due to climate change. Architects like Dura Vermeer and Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio have already begun designing floating houses a.k.a. amphibious homes. It makes perfect sense instead of throwing their hands up to an inevitable doom, they have reinvented the boat house.

Dura Vermeer

After Katrina in New Orleans, architects have already started looking to the Dutch for ideas. It doesn't make sense to continue to run from the water. Why not embrace it? Olthuis makes it sound so simple. Just fill a concrete box with a plastic foam, turn it over and you have a house that is ready to float. You can take these boxes and connect them, like Lego's. The more connected the more stable. The idea is that, when water level rises and flooding occurs, the box will then rise with the water, up to 13 feet.



The beams holds the structure together to
keep it strong and stable as the water
 makes it rise.

We definitely need to continue to look at this as a new way for us to possibility for design in our country. The answer may not be to run to higher ground. Moving forward, we need to consider this for new building structures. We want another real estate boom, this could be it.

Koen Olthius, Waterstudio

Check out Koen Olthuis' work at http://www.waterstudio.nl/ .