“Living on Water” — field implementations at a glance

 “Living on Water” — field implementations at a glance

  • Myanmar, Inle Lake (floating gardens)
    Artificial islets made by bundling lake weeds and hyacinth, topped with soil to grow tomatoes, etc. Beds are moored with bamboo; harvest and maintenance are done by boat—an affordable climate adaptation.

  • Cambodia, Tonlé Sap (floating/stilt settlements)
    Homes float or stand on stilts to track rainy-season floods and dry-season lows. Villages (e.g., Chong Kneas) adapt by moving or riding the water level.

  • Vietnam/Thailand (amphibious houses)
    Houses sit on land in normal times and float during floods: buoyant foundations plus vertical guide poles and flexible utilities control vertical motion. Pilots along the Mekong; Thai prototypes expanded after the 2011 floods.

  • Europe, Netherlands—Maasbommel
    Planned amphibious neighborhood: vertical guides and flexible hookups let homes track up to ~5.5 m of water-level change (32 amphibious + 14 floating units). Integrated with “Room for the River” flood policy.

Shared design patterns

  • Buoyancy: manage density via bundled vegetation, foam, or hollow concrete.

  • Restraint & connections: vertical guides/moorings limit drift; power/water/waste lines use flexible couplings.

  • Operational flexibility: movable moorings and modular “islands” enable a market for water-based plots.

Takeaways

  • A continuum from low-tech (floating beds, stilts) to mid-tech (amphibious retrofits) to high-tech (planned districts).

  • The key is not “always afloat,” but the option to float when needed—plus infrastructure and social systems that tolerate vertical movement.


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