A Future for Floating Homes

Dutch officials are updating zoning laws to allow homes that are fixed to the shore but rise and fall with the water.

Somewhere between the conventional home and the houseboat, there are entire neighborhoods of floating domiciles that are fixed to the shore but rise and fall with the water. "In the Netherlands," Yale Environment 360 reports, "they are often prefabricated, square-shaped, three-story townhouses built offsite with conventional materials." These innovations are now being mimicked elsewhere, from Norway to the Maldives, as coastal communities adapt to rising sea levels. Dutch officials, meanwhile, are currently "working to update zoning laws to make the construction of floating homes easier."

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

BASEMENT’S FLOODED.

[perlmonger]

No, no. That’s just the indoor pool.

[Don't look at me!]

Hey, no grass to cut.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Grass don’t trim itself. That’s why we need more trimmigrants.

[rbike]

My sump pump switch was stuck over the weekend. Water on the basement floor. Things are thawing, water is flowing. Rejiggered the float switch and all is better. Til it fails again. And it will.

[rbike]

Bust oat another thousand on repairs.

[Longtobefree]

OK. One of the effects of global climate warming change eliminated.

[Don't look at me!]

… but rise and fall with the water.

… as coastal communities adapt to rising sea levels.

Is it rising and falling or just rising?

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

These houses are nicknamed tide pods for a reason.

[Don't look at me!]

Breaking news: People in the Netherlands have been living on boats since forever.

[NoVaNick]

Nice idea, but what happens when you flush the toilet?

[Don't look at me!]

Mom smiles?

[Dillinger]

shoulda done that to the Jersey shore 30 years ago

[UnitedBronx]

Where is my comment?