Holland's Floating Houses

Two-thirds of the Dutch live below sea level. A potential solution? Houses are built on hollow concrete pontoons.

1 minute read

May 27, 2004, 1:00 PM PDT

"Holland is Europe's most densely occupied country, and two-thirds of the Dutch live below sea level. If there are to be more houses, more land will have to be created for them, or they will have to be built beside water. The country has been creating artificial land, or polder, for centuries. There are minor floods here every two or three years... The hollow concrete pontoons that serve as foundations will be able to rise, guided up a pair of 15ft concrete piles, when the flood waters come. The clapboard superstructure, meanwhile, is light and boat-like. Flexible pipes and ducts are designed to ensure that water, gas and electricity supplies, and sewage disposal function even when the houses rise a whole storey. Boats can be moored alongside..."

Thanks to ArchNewsNow

FULL STORY: Sink or swim

Monday, October 24, 2005 in The Guardian Unlimited

Housing Europe

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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