Wednesday 25 July 2007

Putting the Ark into Architecture















Need affordable housing, or building on floodplains be grim?

In a country where flooding is predicted to become commonplace, aside from the obvious solution of building on stilts, would it be viable to have communities of homes such as these in UK?
Or even something amphibious that works just as well on dry land, but has a 'hull' which comes into play when flooding occurs?

There is a growing movement of amphibious housing in Holland in particular. Although my primary interest is in affordable and sustainable housing (specifically the Community Land Trust Model Oxfordshire Community Land Trust for landlubbers, I'm also fascinated by other inventive solutions to our housing crisis which are both attractive and practical, ticking a goodly number of eco boxes.

For even more avant-garde floating 'arkitecture', see here:

Inhabitat
Chernoff Thompson Floating Homes
Architects of The Floating World

or deep sea options, here!

Architectradure

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe Homer Simpson is right. "One day we're all going to live under the sea!"

Anonymous said...

I used to live on a boat, which was both fun and workable. Let nature have some of the flood-plain back and build lots of boats.
And when you are afloat you have an instant community as you all meet up at the laundrette. And no space for all that clutter. And when it comes to moving, just hitch up a rope and off you go.