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Floating the family home to beat rising seas
RISING sea levels threaten to make ocean and river front living increasingly problematic. But not all the solutions involve a retreat from the water's edge.
A new breed of primarily European architects has begun to design and build what they are calling "watervillas", "amphibious homes" or as the German designed structure pictured above is called, a "Floatinghome". If water levels rise, so do the floating houses. In fact the new designs can even spend part of their lives on dry flood plains and only lift off on their hollow concrete pontoons when the waters arrive - thus becoming "amphibious".
Martin Förster, the German-based designers of the "Floatinghome"* told Trans Scan by email that both climate change and the worldwide growth of cities was generating new interest to build on water. "Most of the biggest cities of the world are side by side to the water, at the ocean, the Atlantic, a river or a lake," he said.
"The only way for more growth of the cities is to build on water. We are planning floating homes for living floating villages, floating conference centres, floating cinemas, floating clubs with restaurants, spa and sky bridge, a floating hotel, floating police station, floating home for children, and floating offices."
The Floatinghomes like the one pictured cost in Germany between €600,000 and €900,000 ($918,000 and $1,380,000) - depending on layout and finish. Apart from the concrete pontoon, the outer shell is made either from glass- fibre reinforced plastic or aluminium sheeting with a seawater- resistant coating. Because of its prefabricated modular design, it can also be built with a variety of layouts.
