Living on water has attracted a lot of attention the last few years. Coping with fluctuations in water level has become a central theme in spatial developments. This challenge has proven to be a driving force behind the development of water-based architecture.
Living on water, in a nutshell
In Holland people have lived on the water for over 100 years. The first types of water-homes were ships that were transformed into houses. After that people started building houses on concrete boxes -- these were the first houseboats. Over the last five years, the modern water villa has become more popular; this construction is equal to/resembles a house you can find on land, but it has a full-fledged stable floating foundation. This foundation has been the base for a completely new spectrum of floating housing typologies with high densities, such as semi-detached houses, urban villas, and terrace houses complete with a garden and road. Technically it is now even possible to make very large floating foundations on which virtually any large-scale developments can take place. Developers in the Netherlands are already including floating apartment complexes or high-rise buildings in their developments.
In Dutch newly built living areas, there is hardly enough room to realize the required amount of houses according to the regulations and criteria for water storage. Due to the regulations and criteria for water storage in the Netherlands, there is hardly enough. The new floating foundations and parcels give designers the opportunity to also use the water as a building plot. This allows for a higher density and more space per house, because the building plot is much bigger by also using the water storage areas. The new floating neighborhoods will be dynamic neighborhoods, in both a horizontal as well as a vertical sense.
Check back next week for the second installment of Koen Olthuis's blog entry.
About this Week's Guest Blogger:
BIO: ir J.K. Olthuis
Koen Olthuis studied
architecture and industrial design at the Delft University of
Technology. He is the founder of the Dutch architectural firm
Waterstudio.NL that specializes in floating structures to counter
concerns of floods, which are both a local concern (one-third of the
Netherlands is reclaimed land) and a global one due to the possible
effects of climate change. In 2007, he was chosen as No. 122 on the Times Magazine list of "Most Influential People in the World" due to the worldwide interest in water-based developments.
His
vision is to change cities worldwide by using water as building
ground. Static cities have to change into dynamic cities ready to
adapt to floods and fluctuations. The first city in which this work is
being built is Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
About Waterstudio.NL
Waterstudio develops new architectural and urban typologies, as well as technical solutions in dealing with the problems of dynamic water management and building on water. The development of dwelling and working concepts provides a new notion of the layout of parcels and regions. Moreover, new techniques make new forms of buildings possible. Innovation is the main force behind the firm: Waterstudio has set itself the objective of converting innovative ideas into feasible and broadly applicable building concepts for the upcoming decades. Visit the Waterstudio.nl website.
PHOTOS: Waterstudio.NL and Dutch Docklands, the Dubai Floating Islands
The 520 Floating Bridge on Lake Washington connecting Seattle and Bellvue is to be replaced. It sits between the most valuable land in the state. A floating Nieghborhood in the middle of the new bridge might help pay for its contruction.
Posted by: Charter Harrison | September 02, 2008 at 02:58 AM
i am from india , andhra pradesh hyderabad..... we do have a lake in our city named hussainsagar, i would like to construct a water house in this lake, but the water here is not that deep and its a bit dirty so can u please suggest me how to construct a house and wat is the cost incurred during the construction and also the min time that is required to construct a basic house
Posted by: Pradeeep Proddaturi | March 09, 2009 at 06:10 AM
That would be so relaxing. Just to have your own island.
Posted by: Cellulite Cream | October 08, 2009 at 08:33 PM
This has to be the way forward, what with rising sea levels and countries facing losing huge swathes of land!
Posted by: Travel Insurance Seniors | October 15, 2009 at 05:57 AM
i saw a show about this on the discovery channel. i recommend looking for the video online... it's worth watching!
Posted by: ab rocket | November 21, 2009 at 07:58 AM