Architects Of The Floating World

28-May-2004
Forget the little Dutch boy who held back the deluge by putting his finger in the
dike: architects in the Netherlands are busy designing new houses that float serenely
on the flood...

Water houses, Amsterdam, IJburg

You can hear the jokes already: too much
hydroponic skunk, a crate or three of Grolsch,
and then a sudden architectural epiphany:
"Shtop! What are we doing? Let's build the
chilled out houses that can go with the flow
instead up uptight dikes and defences!"

Inevitable, no doubt. But the Dutch architects

who have invented new buildings designed to
accept rather than resist the rising torrent may
well have come up with the perfect housing
solution for a globally-warmed world.

After all, if the scare stories are right - and the Hollywood version of the eco-apocalypse,
The Day After Tomorrow, splashes across British cinema screens this weekend - there
really is a tide in the affairs of men. And pretty soon we'll be in it up to our necks.

Dutch Dilemma

The Dutch, as smart Alecs with a GSCE in geography will know, have always had a bit of
a tricky job keeping their feet dry. Half the country lies below sea level and about 60% of
its 16 million people live in these low-lying areas.
Water houses, Amsterdam, IJburg
To add to the problem, Holland is one of the
most densely populated places in the world,
which is why for centuries the Dutch have built
on polders - reclaimed land protected by a
complex network of dikes, canals and windmill-
driven pumps.

Despite all of these, the country has often been

overwhelmed by catastrophic flooding. Back in
1953 more than 1,800 people died in a deluge
and in 1993 and 1995 severe flooding caused
billions worth of damage.
These recent inundations could be the shape of things to come: according to the UN
Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, rainfall in the Netherlands could increase in
the coming century by up to 25% and the sea level rise by more than three feet.

Faced with this grim reality, the Dutch have decided to rethink their time-honoured
methods of defence and come up with more innovative ways to live with the threat.
Building houses that float is part of the plan: instead of holding back the water, the Dutch
have decided to live on it.

Floating Suburbs
Canadian floating house
Houseboats, I hear you say. Not quite. The water
houses designed by architect Art Zaaijer for the
building company Ooms Bouwmaatschappij
certainly float. But the six two-storey versions
constructed as prototypes have staircases and
pitched roofs and don't look remotely like a boat.

Built on an floating platform made of styrofoam

wrapped in a thin shell of concrete, the walls and
floors are fashioned from light-weight
prefabricated wooden panels and the facade is
clad in coated aluminium, making the outer skin maintenance-free.

The Canadians have been using this system for years and the Dutch are now adapting it to
create whole new water-based urban quarters. Among the most prominent is the new
Ijburg district of Amsterdam which, when finished, will provide 18,000 homes, as well as
floating offices, schools, hospitals, and transport facilities.

Aqua Villa,
Ooms Bouwmaatschappij
Ooms Bouwmaatschappij's six houses are now a
sales centre for the new scheme and the
company will eventually provide 500 of the new
homes in the development.

At ¬200-500,000 a pop, they don't come cheap.

And it's difficult to see where the little Gullits
and van Nistelrooys of the future will kick a ball
around. But that hasn't stopped 5,000 people joining the waiting list.

Maybe it's the fact that they can always move the house elsewhere if they don't like the
neighbours. The homes are manoeuvred into place by a tug boat and can be transported in
the same way - so a bit of site-swapping seems on the cards.
 Maas Attack
Factor Architecten
Art Zaaijer is not the only Dutch architectural
practice dreaming up floating houses and cities.
An alternative version, designed by Factor
Architecten, has been constructed by the
developers Dura Vermeeron on a small estate on
the banks of the river Maas, south of Arnhem.

When the river breaks its banks each of the the

37 houses will rise on a pair of 15-foot concrete
piles to escape the torrent. As the waters recede
the amphibious houses drop back down to earth again.

The attractive split-level structures, with curved roofs, clapboard exteriors, and flexible
open-plan interiors, certainly put a lot of British new-built houses to shame.

Flood homes,
Factor Architecten
Facing the river and enjoying marvellous views,
they're surrounded by ample terraces and jetties
where the residents can moor their boats.

Dr Chris Zevenburgen, of Dura Vermeer, says

floating houses are the future for Holland: "Forty
per cent of new homes to be built in the next few
years will be built in areas prone to flooding. So
we have to do something or we will suffer."

He's not alone in thinking this: if you want to see just how seriously the Dutch are taking
the idea, check out H2OLLAND, a Royal Institute of Dutch Architects' website
showcasing many of the most innovative schemes.

Not Waving...

Could similar development happen here? There's certainly a case to be made. According
to the Environment Agency, five million people and 1.9 million British homes are at risk
from flooding. And global warming will make the problem worse.
Thames barrier
A recent government-backed report looked 80
years into the future and concluded that river and
coastal flood risk could increase between two
and 20 times, while the risk of flooding from rainfall could increase between three and
six times.

Like Holland, Britain is densely populated and desperate to build more houses. The
Government plans thousands in the Thames Gateway area, much of which is below sea-
level. Plans are afoot to upgrade the Thames barrier but the jury is out on whether that
will be enough.

In the meantime, John Prescott - and no jokes, please about the Deputy PM's exceptional
buoyancy - has been extolling the virtues of Poundbury and the new town of Seaside in
Florida. We might yet regret that he didn't take a trip to Amsterdam.

Michael O'Flynn

© Find A Property 2000-2007

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For centuries, the Dutch have built dikes to protect themselves from the sea. Now, with
predictions of more frequent flooding due to climate change, they are looking for ways to
live with water, not fight it.

That change of thinking is reflected at a new housing project in this central Dutch village
about 60 miles southeast of Amsterdam. It is a community of amphibious homes.

Unlike the houseboats that line many Dutch canals or the floating villages of Asia, the
several dozen homes are being built on solid ground. But they also are designed to float
on flood water.

Each house is made of lightweight wood, and the concrete base is hollow, giving it ship-
like buoyancy.

With no foundations anchored in the earth, the structure rests on the ground and is
fastened to 15-foot-long mooring posts with sliding rings, allowing it to float upward
should the river flood. All the electrical cables, water and sewage flow through flexible
pipes inside the mooring piles.

The 700-square-foot structures are on the “wrong” side of a dike in a beautiful flood plain
of one of the country’s main waterways, the Maas River, overlooking lush marshland and
a harbor.

Housing also drives idea

That addresses another constant fight in the Netherlands — finding space for housing in
Europe’s most densely populated country, says Chris Zevenbergen of Dura Vermeer, the
company behind the project.
He says floating houses could help make up the 40 percent shortfall in land suitable for
development over the next 50 years.

At a starting price of 260,000 euros, or about $310,000, for a house with three small
bedrooms, the homes are at the high end of the market for a village like Maasbommel.
But many have been sold, and the first residents are about to move in.

“They are pretty much just regular houses,” says builder Hans van de Beek. “The only
difference is that when the water rises, they rise.”

Boats required
So, during times of high water, people will need a boat to get from the dike where they
park their car to the “comfort” of their floating home.

For more than 1,000 years the Dutch have been holding back the sea, and even
reclaiming it. Landfills and windmill-driven pumps have created vast fields, called
polders, for new cities, pastures and cropland. If it weren’t for its system of dikes and
canals, as much as half of the Netherlands could be submerged.

The country was hit by flooding twice in the past decade, in 1993 and 1995, causing
billions of dollars in damage. In 1953, more than 1,800 people died during a deluge,
referred to ever since simply as “the disaster.”

Scientists warn that global warming will make it worse. The U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel of Climate Change predicts rainfall in the Netherlands could increase by up to 25
percent and the sea level could rise 43 inches in this century.

“Due to the changing climate, the Netherlands and its delta areas will be confronted with
rising water,” Zevenbergen says. “This is a way for people to live in the low-lying areas
that would otherwise be uninhabitable.”

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