Storm season is upon us, and with climate change bringing us more severe and more frequent storms. Flooding is happening more often. Everytime there's flooding someone talks about the insanity of building on a flood plane. Usually with a picture of a sign announcing a development of executive homes, sat in a field of water. The thing is. The problem isn't building in flood planes. The problem is building shitty buildings in flood planes. Naturally the Dutch have a thing or tow to say on this 1/n
What's special about these homes tho, is they are built to deal with the flood. Each home is built with a hollow concrete base. They are anchored to a large steel pillar that is driven into the ground. The hollow base provides buoyancy, and when the water level rises. So do the homes. The garden might not be too happy. And you probably want to move the car before the flooding happens. But the home is protected. Rising and falling with the water level.
3/n
Some of the homes appear more like they are on dry land, some look more like they are floating all the time.
These are not normal homes, they aren't as easy to roll out as the copy pasta rabbit hutches many developers like these days. But by adapting our design. By embracing new ideas we can build homes on flood planes. We can build resilient buildings that cope with climate change (heat pumps, solar power, Braise soleii etc...)
4/n
Floating buildings like those at Maasbommel are not the only solution that allows for flood plane living. After the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, many developers in the US tried to come up with designs for homes that could cope with the high winds and high waters of hurricanes. One such design is this one on stilts. Raising the home up like this mitigates the risk of flooding, whilst providing a much need shade area below the home.
5/n
The world is changing around us. We've inflicted massive damage upon the climate, and as a result we are going to have more storms, stronger storms, hotter weather, longer dry spells. Our built environment needs to adapt to meet these changing conditions. Flood plains can be used for their evolved purpose as places to flood. But we can use them for buildings too. If we build them right. Continuing to build the same crap we have been however is just an act of idiocy.
6/6
Post script. I've been sent this link to a similar concept to the Maasbommel homes, but on the Thames in the UK:
https://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/15/baca-architects-amphibious-house-floating-floodwater/
@quixoticgeek you can watch it being built on Grand Designs Revisited - Buckinghamshire: The Floating House (Revisited from S14 Ep7) https://g.co/kgs/aHMig8
@quixoticgeek Your thread stopped! I imagine it was going to explain how the homes are designed for flood resilience. Which is definitely a trendy thing at the moment.
But I feel "Why not just not build on the floodplain?" NL is short of space, so I can see the argument there, but most places aren't. Also, nl will do it properly because floods are in national psyche, they take it seriously. Imagine this done by UK housing developers, plus the governance that gave us Grenfell?
@quixoticgeek It does! I wonder why the rest didn't thread properly through my Mastodon instance.....
And I agree with your thread, while still also thinking "but if you don't need to do that, maybe just don't build on the floodplain" ;-)
@simon_on_energy well there is that.
@quixoticgeek Your post just reminded me of this image, from south of me a year or two ago.
@TicklishHoneyBee That's up there with the burning dumpster floating down a flooded river... Ouch.
@quixoticgeek Would this also take Amazon level droughts into account?
Hopefully the bottom underneath the houses is level.
@maas That I can't tell you. I would imaging that the length of the pole can be scaled accordingly.
@quixoticgeek From what I read... the normal condition of the houses is that they sit flat on the ground.. Only when the water levels rises above 7 NAP, they start floating.
This is Maasbommel. A small city on the banks of the Maas river in the Netherlands. The settlement has existed here for best part of a millennia. Most of the old city is built on the inside of the dijks, which protect it from the water levels of the Maas river (aka the Meuse). But these homes. They are built on the "wrong" side of the dijk. They have nothing between them and the flood waters of the Maas. On the face of it they look like pretty normal modern homes. 2/n