HISTORY

“Over three quarters of the surface of

The earth is covered by water. Under
The conditions of limited buildable
Land, or to a lesser extent, simply
Taking advantage of the resourceful and a-stimulating
Environment, the idea of waterborne development has been demonstrated

By projects such as the Ponte Vecchio in Florence;

Chateau de Chenonceau
On the River Cher near Paris;
Edgar J. Kaufmann House in Bear Run,

Pennsylvania; Palace Pier in Brighton England.

America of the Nineteenth century, the cities were

Impatient with their natural water
Boundaries. Almost 60 percent of the
Old city Boston was under water including
The entire Back Bay District; the Chicago lakefront contains more
Than 2,000 acres of land that were once under the surface of Lake Michigan.

The use of water frontier for urban development has also been applied through history.
Venice was first settled as a refuge by mainlanders fleeting Atticas hordes in the fifth
century.”2
An Investigation of Implications of Waterborne
and Hillside Development

Floating
“A scoreful of proposed projects and studies such as the Triton City, made up of a proto-type
floating neighbourhood community of 5,000 residents was suggested by the Triton
Foundation under the direction of Buckminister Fuller; the Sea City for 33,000 inhabitants,
floating off the coast of England, was proposed by the English architect Moggridge and
Martin; the Urban Matrix proposed by Stanley Tigerman of Chicago; a residential bridge for
Zurich was proposed by architect Hugo Wandeler; the Urban Expansion Plan for Helsinki was
suggested by a group of Finnish architects and the Tokyo Plan proposed by Kenzo Tange
Group, further illustrated the ideas and possibilities of utilizing the natural landscape.
Basically, there are some common constraints and factors that might alter the planning and
design of waterborne development”2
An Investigation of Implications of Waterborne and Hillside Development

Holland is probably to be the first floating country, in which the notion of housing is
transforming into amphibious homes. Floating structures are already part of country’s urban
planning.
To see the old boat turned into a house on the channels of Amsterdam is not uncommon
scene – some are even provided with terraces or small gardens. But further along the Amstel

River one could find real design houses floating on the water.4
flexible architecture
Floating house Netherlands
Indian examples of floating dwellings are
DAL in Kashmir, Kerala
in Dal their resides a whole settlement/society who live on houseboats, use it for tourist
purpose, also do farming on dal to meet there needs and also to trade.

AQUATECHTURE

“Water plays a vital role in shaping our built environment, as it has done for centuries. We
depend on it, we use it, we live with it and we must respect it. Aquatecture is the new ways
of ‘designing for water,’ using examples from around the world to illustrate methods of
utilizing water innovatively, efficiently and safely”.3
Aquatecture: Buildings and cities designed to live and work with water

“R. Buckminster Fuller's floating Triton City employed

the tetrahedron's stability and prefabrication in its
formation. An advocate of inventiveness and ecology,

Fuller continues to seek ways for humanity to conserve

and share the resources of our spaceship Earth.”1
UNDERWATER DWELLINGS AND SEA BORN STRUCTURES
“In 1966, Paul Maymont proposed a floating village for Monaco. Resembling a huge stadium,
the terraced dwellings step down the interior of the dished structure. Stanley Tigerman
exploited the geometric hemioctet space frame concept in his 1968 U.S.A. Urban Matrix.
Jacques Covell and Damaz-et Weigel imply a biological model in their amorphic dwellings
clustered about courts and tied by bridges in their 1970 Floating Village for San Martin.”

1
UNDERWATER DWELLINGS AND SEA BORN STRUCTURES

PILE DWELLINGS
pile dwellings around the Alps is a series of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house)
settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes,
rivers or wetlands. 111 sites, located in Austria (5
sites), France (11), Germany (18), Italy (19), Slovenia (2), and Switzerland (56), were added
to UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2011. In Slovenia, this is the first cultural world heritage
site.
INTERNET

dykes aquatecture

- “Dutch water towns (grachtensteden)

T h e early Dutch settlements were established on natural high ground , ground above high-tide
level, on islands, on secure ground that occurs a t the confluence of rivers, geest ground , an d on
ground raised with dykes. I n the western lowlands, sites for settlements ha d to be drained ,
consolidated an d the level raised to provide the basis for grachtenstadt. T h e development of trade
gave importance to settlements accessible to rivers and coast, settlements that also required moats
for protection. The dyking of rivers an d the construction of canals to protect the dykes represented
early eflbrts to improve trade and communications. The dykes were constructed wide enough for a
road to be formed along the top and buildings erected on the dyke bank
- Amsterdam
T h e seventeenth-century development of Amsterdam represents the boldest a n d most extensive
feat of canal-town planning . Amsterdam was only a small fishing village during the early thirteenth
century. I n 1240 a dam was constructed across the Amstel, to form a n inner and outer harbour, an
d the main stream was divided into two channels leading to the sea. The original Amstel dykes
provided route s for the first long streets of the future city. The narrow lanes that cross them were
formerly field paths. Buildings on either side of the inner and outer harbours originally fronted
directly onto the water to permit easier handling of goods from ships.
Toward s the end of the sixteenth century the plan of the three canals was put forward as a solution
to further extension. The scheme was put into operation early in the seventeenth century with the
three wide concentric canals and streets (forming the characteristic long and narrow building blocks)
an d an extensive five mile ring of fortifications incorporating bastions an d gates. The plan included
sites for public buildings an d a spacious park, the Plantage .” 5

AQUATECTURE . Architecture and Water