HOUSING ON WATER

..According to Architecture 2030, buildings generate nearly 40% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. 

To accommodate tremendous population growth around the world, we expect to add 2.48 trillion square feet (230 billion m2) of new floor area to the global building stock, doubling it by 2060. This is the equivalent of adding an entire New York City every month for 40 years. Architects must not only come up with creative ways for these new buildings to reduce their energy usage but also, design for the countless consequences that arise from warming temperatures around the world.


As we....

​We've selected ten floating house designs from architects around the world to show....
"VISION FOR YEAR 2100 URBAN WATER EDGE" - RECOGNIZED PROPOSAL IN WARMING 2020
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1. Floating House 
Designed by Friday SA
Located in Alqueva, Portugal 

    This floating house has been designed with low environmentally impactful materials and technologies that reduce its carbon footprint and lower its energy needs. It has a compact activated sludge wastewater treatment plant and when charged, the house is self-sufficient for at least seven days. It produces up to 80% of its annual energy needs.

    It is also equipped with two small outboard motors, that allow this home to travel at a moderate speed of 3 knots. The modular design of the house means that all its components, including equipment and furniture, can be easily stored in two standard containers and shipped to almost anywhere on the planet. 

2. Urban Rigger
Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group
​Located in Copenhagen, Denmark 

    Recent years have shown a substantial increase in the number of student throughout Denmark. As the number of students continues to grow, additional student housing will be needed to accommodate them. A solution that will keep students at the heart of the city would be introducing floating housing for harbor cities.

   By stacking 9 container units in a circle, they've created 12 studio residences which frame a centralized winter garden; this is used as a common meeting place for students. The housing is also buoyant, like a boat, so that can be replicated in other harbor cities where affordable housing is needed, but space is limited.
"Urban Rigger" by Bjarke Ingels Group
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3. Floating Home 
Designed by i29 Architects
​Located in Amsterdam, Netherlands

   i29 Architects created a project that revitalizes a disused canal to create homes for over 100 residents. The location has a strong industrial past but today it is one of the most rapidly changing city parts of Amsterdam, transforming into a more multi-functional residential area. The new floating neighborhood is intended to be an urban ecosystem embedded within the fabric of the city: making full use of ambient energy and water for use and re-use, cycling nutrients and minimizing waste, plus creating space for natural biodiversity.

     The site is energy self-sufficient, employs circular building practices, and serves as a showcase for sustainable living. A smart jetty connects the 46 floating households with each other and the quay. Below the surface, the jetty is a functional and sustainable connector with all the energy, waste and water lines attached to every household connected together.

4. Paperhouses
Designed by Carl Turner Architects

   'We are developing the idea of a compact floating house in response to both the underuse of urban waterways, and as a response to the increasing problems of flooding in the UK and globally’, explain Carl Turner Architects.

   Carl Turner’s design proposal for an open concept platform called paperhouses, is part house and part boat that seeks to build on the condensed eco-system that a boat at sea naturally creates. The dwelling is formed of a series of components that can be transported to site by lorry or barge, then lifted into position. the house itself, an insulated rubber coated timber box, sits on floating tray measuring 20 by 7 meters. Two side panels then create an outer skin for the structure, these blinkers will also support photovoltaic panels capable of generating both electricity and hot water.
Paperhouse proposal by Carl Turner Architects
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5.
Hortus BOATanicus 
Designed by Waterstudio

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6. The Portage Bay Float Home
Designed by Studio DIAA
Located in Seattle, WA

    The Portage Bay Float Home serves as the personal residence of Stefan, who co-founded Studio DIAA in 2019. The project recently won a 2021 Housing Award from the American Institute of Architects. Following a long tradition of floating homes in Seattle, the dwelling is located on the north end of Lake Union, in a spot called Portage Bay.

   It was built on top of a log-float foundation dating to the early 1900s. The home sits close to the shore and has access to a garden. Square in plan, the home consists of a single level that totals 650 square feet (60 square meters). The building is topped with a pitched roof that flattens out as it extends over a deck.Exterior walls are clad in dark cedar and Richlite, a composite material made of resin-infused paper. Sliding doors help erase the boundary between inside and out.
 
"The Portage Bay Float House" by Studio DIAA
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7.
​The FLOAT House 
Designed by Morphosis Architects
Located in  New Orleans, LA

    The FLOAT House was designed to fit multiple needs: a house that can sustain its own water and power needs; a house that can survive the floodwaters generated by a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina; and a house that can be manufactured cheaply enough to function as low-income housing.

   This design optimizes the efficiency of mass-production, while respecting New Orleans’s unique culture and context in the form of the traditional shotgun house. Like a typical shotgun house, the FLOAT House sits atop a raised base. This innovative base, or “chassis,” integrates all mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sustainable systems, and securely floats in case of flooding. The FLOAT House’s chassis is designed to support a variety of customizable house configurations.

   The FLOAT House is a prototype for prefabricated, affordable housing that can be adapted to the needs of flood zones worldwide.

8. Floating House
Designed by MOS Architects
Located on Lake Huron, Canada

   This project was designed for site-specific conditions of an island on Lake Huron. The location on the Great Lakes imposed complexities to the house's fabrication and construction, as well as its relationship to site. Annual cyclical change related to the change of seasons, compounded with escalating global environmental trends, cause Lake Huron's water levels to vary drastically from month-to-month, year-to-year. To adapt to this constant, dynamic change, the house floats atop a structure of steel pontoons, allowing it to fluctuate along with the lake.

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"Floating House" by MOS Architects
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​Designed by MOS Architects
Located on Lake Huron, Canada
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Designed by 

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"Urban Rigger" by Bjarke Ingels Group

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