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There is even a proposal for floating islands in the Baltic Sea on which small cities would be built. A cross-section of a floating house AHLQVIST & ALMQVISTIn the Netherlands, a country which is largely built on reclaimed land and a third of which remains below sea level, the idea is not so far-fetched. In Amsterdam, which has almost 3,000 officially registered traditional houseboats across its canals, hundreds of people have moved into floating homes in previously neglected neighborhoods. With about a third of the country below the current sea level, the Netherlands is embracing floating houses and other buildings that can adapt to rising waters. The floating communities in the Netherlands, which emerged in the past decade, have served as proof of concept for larger-scale projects now being spearheaded by Dutch engineers.
These are considered to have a flood risk of less than 1 in 100 years. Through flood risk assessments, the aim of local planning authorities is to steer new development to Flood Zone 1, areas which the Environment Agency considers to have a probability of flooding of less than 1 in 1,000 years. The Environment Agency is currently committed to spending £2.6bn over six years on delivering 1,500 projects which will better protect 300,000 homes from coastal erosion and flooding.
Living on water is normal for us – Marjan de Blok
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "The Essential List" – a handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife, Travel and Reel delivered to your inbox every Friday. To show you two extremes you need only look at Lazzarini Design’s Floating UFO home and then take a peek at The Floating Seahorse, a series of luxury floating villas that are partially underwater and constructed by real estate agencyKleindienst Group. I’m not entirely sure The Floating UFO home even takes itself seriously, while Seahorse is certainly looking to appeal to the “I’ve got more money than I know what to do with” demographic. If the different modules all have their particularities, those that stand out are certainly the SeaPod and EcoPod, due to the fact that they are erected above the water. These were conceptualized to address the lack of space in popular beach destinations.
Community members share nearly everything, including bikes, cars, and food bought from local farmers. Each building runs its own heat pump and devotes roughly a third of its roof to greenery and solar panels. Residents sell surplus power to one another and to the national grid. Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes. These floating communities are inspiring more ambitious Dutch-led projects in flood-prone nations as far-flung as French Polynesia and the Maldives.
The American Genius Real Estate
“You could build homes that go up and down that mean you do not displace any water off the site. The Dutch are very good at this,” says Floodline technical director Faruk Pekbeken. We’re an online magazine dedicated to covering the best in international product design. A household needs to make $450,000 per year to afford a single–family home, the most prevalent form of housing in Sausalito. Studio apartment rentals, which average $2,118 in monthly rent, can be affordable for some low–income individuals.
Moreover, in terms of the practical aspect, such as the purchase of groceries, Romundt assures us that the delivery drones will perfectly fulfill the role of bringing food, medicine and other items of every day until the modules. There should be no shortage of offers, because as Ocean Builders general manager Grant Romundt told CNN Travel, many of them have wanted to buy a pod for years. But so far, the company has not accepted any deposits, preferring to give interested people the opportunity to visit the modules before deciding. The houses are certainly not being touted as an alternative to conventional flood defenses such as dykes, levees and river barriers. Floating buildings are certainly not the only way of achieving such a combination.
Building away climate change
The pods were designed “to benefit the environment” and provide “a natural habitat for ocean life to grow and thrive,” she promises. The latter, himself a fan of floating houses, is certain that visitors will be convinced by the experience offered by the SeaPods. "These houses not only offer protection against floods, but also great quality of living and low environmental impact." So this housing innovation could offer a vital means for other countries expecting to be hit by sea level rises. Although the Tidal House could be used to live off a coastline, Terry said he could see building the homes in areas prone to flooding so people could live without constantly worry about recurring damages.
Dutch firms specialising in floating buildings have been inundated with requests from developers abroad for more ambitious projects too. Blue21, a Dutch tech company focused on floating buildings, is currently working on a proposed series of floating islands in the Baltic Sea. The development could house 50,000 people and connect to a privately funded €15bn ($16.9bn/£12.5bn) underwater rail tunnel to link Helsinki, Finland and Tallin in Estonia. The project is backed by Finnish investor and "Angry Birds" entrepreneur Peter Vesterbacka.
Sausalito covers the City of Sausalito only, but this is where many of us shop and spend our time away from home. Every local government jurisdiction in the Bay Area, including Sausalito and Marin County, is developing its own 6th Cycle Housing Elements, which are due in January 2023. The Housing Element is a mandatory part of the general plan and requires communities to plan for new housing. "Over the last 15 years, we've reinvented ourselves as a delta city," says Arnoud Molenaar, chief resilience officer with the City of Rotterdam. "Instead of seeing water just as an enemy, we see it as an opportunity." The concept is intriguing but actually launching these concepts will take more than calm seas.
Koen Olthuis, who in 2003 founded Waterstudio, a Dutch architectural firm focused exclusively on floating buildings, says the relatively lo-tech nature of floating homes is potentially their biggest advantage. The homes he designs are stabilised by poles dug roughly 65m into the ground and outfitted with shock-absorbent materials to reduce the feeling of movement from nearby waves. "If there are floods, it's expected that many people will move to higher ground. But the alternative is to stay close to coastal cities and explore expansion onto the water," says De Graaf. "If you consider that in the second half of the century, hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by sea level rise, we need to start now to increase the scale of floating developments."
"After the disastrous floods of 1995 the Dutch government laid down strict rules forbidding the building of houses beside rivers. So far Dura Vermeer has built 46 such water-friendly units - 14 floating and 32 amphibious - at Maasbommel, on the banks of the River Maas in Gelderland province in the centre of the country. "In a country such as Holland, where flooding is a serious problem, this sort of technology could have an extremely important role to play." "These type of homes offer a good way of dealing with the effects of climate change," Dura Vermeer spokesman Johan van der Pol told CNN.
Most Sausalito and floating home residents want the “working waterfront” to remain healthy and viable. There is also interest in allocating some land within the Marinship for senior housing and affordable housing. The flat land and larger parcels make senior and affordable housing more viable in the Marinship than in other areas. In October, residents of the floating community of Schoonschip in Amsterdam had little doubt they could ride it out. Ocean Builders claims to have focused on the sustainability of its builders.
"Our philosophy is that you can look at water as a threat, but also as a challenge and a commercial opportunity. Combining water and housing is the obvious way forward in countries such as the Netherlands." In every other respect they look and feel like normal homes -- albeit up-market designer homes -- with split-level accommodation, wooden balconies and clapboard exteriors painted cheery shades of yellow, green and blue. Both employ a large hollow concrete cube at their base to provide buoyancy, and are "moored" in pairs to huge steel piles to keep them anchored in one place, the piles enabling them to withstand currents as strong as you would find on the open seas. Recent flooding in the UK, for example -- the worst for 60 years -- left some 30,000 people homeless and the insurance industry facing over £3 billion ($6 billion) in payouts. Sit along the edge of the Maas River dyke, while other constructions are built on concrete foundations topped with iron piers to keep them above water. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox.
Divided into three and a half levels, the house has a master bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Thanks to its different windows on either side of the house, it is possible to enjoy a 360° view of the ocean. California-based Terry & Terry Architecture has designed floating concepts that it feels could very well be the future of housing down the road. Expected to open in May 2024, the Elle Apartments will bring 163 residential units and 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail to the downtown area.
Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes.
I suspect, to be realistic, it's more designed for bay water or lagoons or estuaries, Terry said. With innovation enabling engineers to build flood-resilient homes in flood-prone areas in other parts of the world, the UK has not been so quick to embrace such change. The average household size is just 1.6 people, and 37% of residents are over 65. "Living on water is normal for us, which is exactly the point," says Marjan de Blok, a Dutch TV director who initiated the project in 2009 by organising the collective of architects, legal experts, engineers and residents who worked to get the project off the ground. In addition, the sea level accommodation will boast floor to ceiling windows, uninterrupted sea views, a fully-fitted kitchen with a dining area, an open plan living area and a sun deck.
The two-story structure is divided into a public space above the water and a private space underwater. People who live on water inhabit floating mobile houses that can travel freely on the sea, depending on the weather, ebb and flow of tides, and time of the day. They may move in search of food to a place where there is a school of fish, and they may also connect with houses of different “sea cities” to interact with people with different cultures and values. Joanna Clement Borek, a San Francisco designer, took a different approach to floating homes. Tafoni, as her floating residence is called, was designed to challenge conventional notions of land-ownership and to inspire simpler, more introspective living.
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