Floating settlements - housing in times of rising sea levels
However, the ability to relocate one's home or an entire settlement doesn't always have to mean building a whole new city or complicated engineering logistical operations, as long as such a possibility was the basis for planning the settlement in question. Such is the case with Schoonschip in Amsterdam, an urban establishment on the water, designed in accordance with the principles of circular economy.
Floating settlements - Schoonschip in Amsterdam by Space & Matter - conceptual and functional diagram
© Space & Matter
The designers' goal was to create the most sustainable floating residential environment in Europe, consisting of 47 units - floating houses, located on thirty plots of land, which would eventually house more than a hundred people.
The project was also part of a plan to revitalize an abandoned water canal in northern Amsterdam, into which the development was to breathe new life and become a model for similar such projects in the future. To achieve its ambitious environmental goals, Schoonschip uses renewable energy and water from the immediate vicinity, minimizes waste by maximizing recycling, and creates conditions for biodiversity.
Floating settlements - Schoonschip in Amsterdam of the Space & Matter idea - one of the "lifeboats" of a housing launch
Photo: Isabel Nabuurs © Space & Matter
The concept of the housing estate was created through public participation. Based on a study, architects and urban planners worked with the local community on specific design solutions for the shape of the houses and common spaces, basing solutions for energy demand and consumption, heating, and water access on these assumptions. The district, when fully implemented and inhabited by the assumed number of people, is to become self-sufficient in heat and electricity, as well as water collection and treatment. All these solutions, however, are "dressed" in an interesting, modern architectural costume, which increases the attractiveness of living in the district, without directly exposing the technological solutions behind them, but rather building the quality of the space.
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Floating farm - the pantry of floating settlements
