Dutch Answer to Flooding: Build Houses that Swim
Dutch Answer to Flooding: Build Houses that SwimThe Dutch are gearing up for climate change with amphibious houses. If rivers rise above their banks, the houses simply rise upwards as well. Such innovation could be good news for hurricane and flood-stunned America. But are water lovers prepared to live on swimming family arks? There are 37 houses strung along this branch of the Maas like a row of beads. At first glance, they seem quite unremarkable. Two storeys high, semicircular metal roofs and yellow, green or blue facades - hardly any clues let on that these are The Netherlands' first amphibious houses. The cellar, in this case, is not built into the earth. Instead, it is on a platform - and is much more than a mere storage room. The hollow foundation of each house works in the same way as the hull of a ship, buoying the structure up above water. To prevent the swimming houses from floating away, they slide up two broad steel posts - and as the water level sinks, so they sink back down again.
posted by Unknown @ 12:16 AM
3 Comments:
Sounds good for rising waters, but not much comfort with winds in excess of 250 kilometers per hour.
Glad to see you read my blog--interesting article isn't it?
And--your welcome for the link--although you didn't acknowledge it in your posting.
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