Guest essay by Eric Worrall
There have been a few stories in the press lately about climate proof floating houses. As someone who used to live next to a river, I’m concerned floating house advocates have no idea what they are talking about.
Climate change may lead to a rise in floating architecture
Published 5th January 2018
Written by
Trudie Carter, Dezeen
Climate change poses a serious question: how will our cities cope with rising sea levels? Some architects believe that floating buildings offer the answer, and have come up with a wide variety of designs to prove it, from simple prefab homes to entirely amphibious neighborhoods.
Leading the charge is the Netherlands, which has long been a pioneer of water-based living. With over half of its landmass underwater, the country has a well-established canal infrastructure, but is also now taking even more ambitious leaps to transform its cities.
In Amsterdam, a new breed of contemporary houseboats has been popping up all over the city. Among these is a slatted timber structure by Framework Architecten and Studio Prototype, which shows how floating homes can easily feature a story submerged below the water.
A more ambitious proposal is also planned for the Dutch capital — earlier this year, Danish firm BIG and Rotterdam studio Barcode Architects revealed designs for a huge housing complex that will float on the IJ lake. The 46,000-square-meter building will provide a gateway to IJburg, a whole neighborhood set on artificial islands.
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Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/floating-architecture-dezeen/index.html
My biggest concern is the expense. Water is a very corrosive environment, far more so than most people probably realise. Concrete floats usually only last 20 years or so, because they are continuously getting knocked about by the water and objects in the water, and corroded by minerals in the water. Anything sitting on top of those floats is also subject to enhanced corrosion – floating structures tend to deteriorate much quicker than land based structures. Floating structures require expert inspection on a regular basis.
Not a solution for poor people – only rich people can afford to keep their floating houses well maintained and safe. Poor people can live in floating structures, can ignore the recommended inspections which they can’t afford, but the safety risks are substantial.
Attaching emergency floats to a house which normally sit on land is a recipe for disaster, unless the owners of those houses are knowledgeable about the issues and take charge of their personal safety. The floats will work, the rest of the house might break during a flood, as the floats exert new stresses on the house frame.
When a hurricane or storm hits, there is no guarantee your floating structure will survive any better than a fixed structure. Look at the aftermath of any hurricane (e.g. picture above), all the heavily damaged boats which have broken their moorings. Boats are tough – but there has to be a little give in the mooring to support easy vertical movement of the structure as it floats. The coupling has to be slightly loose, to minimise the risk the vertical movement will jam. This loose coupling leads to problems in harsh weather. High winds, especially hurricane force winds, and rough water cause the floating structure to repeatedly slam hard against its mooring. For big structures, each impact will exert 10s, even hundreds of tons of impact force on the mooring and the floating structure. This slamming action in extreme conditions frequently leads to mooring failure, expensive structural damage and / or complete destruction of the floating structure.
If flood floatation events are expected to be rare, the is a substantial risk of substandard construction work on mooring fixtures which likely won’t be tested for a decade or two after the house is built. A little extra sand added to the concrete to cut corners and save some money wouldn’t be noticed until the concrete mooring foundation is stressed by the flood, by which time it would be impossible to work out who was responsible for the failure.
If someone wants to live in a flood prone hurricane risk area, there is a much simpler, cheaper solution to flood risk than a floating structure; don’t buy a house on low lying ground on a floodplain.
The Netherlands is not prone to hurricanes and the areas with floating homes are protected also from storm (tidal) surge.
The Netherlands is also pushing for floating homes to be affordable (social housing)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30412913
Translation: Take money from people who work, in order to make life easier for those who would prefer not to.
Griff
I am sure you know of the devastating 1953 floods – killed hundreds in the UK – but thousands in the Netherlands, only about eight years after the end of World War 2 – during which the Netherlands suffered very badly.
Auto.
My friend Jeff had his second boat anchored off Geiger Key in the Florida Keys this summer before the big huricane. It was he’s second boat because the first sank when it’s bilge pump died when he was away for two days.
And now after the huricane he’s on his third boat.
Hearing about his last year has cured me of ever wanting to live the Key West sailboat lifestyle.
~¿~
This could give new meaning to the phrase “there goes the neighborhood!”
Seattle, Washington has houseboats, mainly on Lake Union, a small lake entirely within the city limits, for over a century. Google:
Seattle Lake Union Houseboats
and look at the pictures. When I was a child, houseboats were a limited source of low-cost housing. No longer. Houseboats do not have to look like boats at all (see pictures if you google), can be anchored very differently than boats and built to last every bit as long as a wood frame home on dry land (which isn’t all that long without major maintenance). Seattle also has a couple of floating bridges which float on the same kind of concrete boxes that Mr. Worrall criticizes, and have been floating for decades. So what makes a houseboat expensive are the three factors that make similar, land-based houses in cities expensive: location, location, location. Which is the same basic three factors that make dry-land city living untenable for the poor, too. I think that in SOME places, just some places, floating homes would be a reasonable solution if people really want to live there. But in other, storm prone ocean-front areas, the best solution is to just move farther inland.
Folks, better ask some people who have spent substantial portions of their lives living aboard floating houses (called “boats” in many parts of the English speaking world). Boats run from bad weather whenever they can. I have driven mine deep into mangroves for protection from storms which would have swamped and sunk us for sure even moored in a “safe harbor”.
Canals and inland lakes (if small enough) would be far safer — but what about all the infrastructure necessary for a modern home? Natural gas connections for heat and cooking, fresh water connections, sewage connections (huge problem for live aboard sailors and cruise liners alike).
Idiotic idea in regards climate change — nice idea for an eccentric way of life — mine in the past for over 25 years.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I didn’t need to read you article Eric. Well stated!
Sigh. On a related note – more solutions to solve the problem of the Emperor’s Clothes – anyone catch that idiot Matt Damon’s new propaganda piece (or see the advertising, because I was happy to hear that it tanked) – ‘Downsizing’ – shrinking people to doll-sized.
This is the madness that has enveloped the progressive left, via environmental lunacy – fifty years ago this was mad-scientist stuff – ‘Dr. Cyclops’ – the sinister ‘Dr. Shrinker’.
Now it’s progressive eco-fantasy. And don’t think for a moment that they’re kidding.
They’ve really gone off the deep end this year – I shudder at the thought of any of these people returning to power.
It wouldn’t really work anyway. The only real way to reduce the size of something would be to reduce the size of the electron’s orbin in every atom. That is the only place to reduce empty space.
The problem this creates is that Atomic Oxygen would still weigh the same as would Atomic Carbon, Hydrogen, Phosphorous such that a 6 ‘ tall 200# male would still weigh 200 lbs at 6″ tall
Part of the irony is that they call themselves progressive despite the fact that they are regressing deeper and deeper into this psychotic fantasy world with the turning of each page of the calendar.
How do you get these floating houses to dry docks, to get rid of the crud underneath the water??
When I was about 15, we lived in Chesterfield, MO, on Wildhorse Creek Road. The creek was just that…a little rivulet a about six feet across and two feet deep. It was on the other side of the road from all of the properties, and really wasn’t noticed by anyone but naturists such as myself.
One night, during a torrential rainstorm, there was a pounding on our front door. I went down and opened it to find my father, his suit drenched to the skin. He staggered in, and told us what had happened.
He was driving home from work, after dark, in a torrential rainstorm, He rounded a curve, which was also the summit of a very small hill, and drove straight into a flood from the little creek. It came up to the windows on his car, and not only stopped the engine, but started carrying the car downstream. He managed to roll down his window, climb onto the roof of his car, and jump to higher ground – which, unfortunately, had a barbed wire fence surrounding it. How he made it over the fence, through the acres of pasture that lay ahead, and all the way home is still something I can’t imagine.
That was a little bitty creek, that hadn’t (to my knowledge) ever flooded to that extent before or since. But it nearly cost my father his life.
The dangers of living near or on water are quite high. Personally, I would love to live on a houseboat, as would my wife. But that’s not the same as living on a house that can float in a flood.
Floating houses are great on a nice calm lake. However when hurricanes come storming through not so good. I lived through Hurricane Hugo many hears ago and when you see boats 5 blocks inland that are smashed floating anything does not seem a good idea.
The basic rule is if it flys, floats or f*s, then rent it.
Problem solved…
The next to last place I’d want to be in a hurricane is in a floating house.
Last place would be the Richelieu Apartments in Pass Christian.