We get serious amounts of rain on Gabriola in the winter months, and we know people on the island whose basements and crawl-spaces flood every year. We also know some people whose Gabriola property is very swampy.

With that in mind, I was fascinated by the land-locked floating house. (Go look!) How amazing is that? Then there’s the float house, described as:

…a house that can sustain its own water and power needs; a house that can survive the floodwaters generated by a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina; and perhaps most importantly, a house that can be manufactured cheaply enough to function as low-income housing.

Still interested? Check out the Buoyant Foundation Project. They use vertical guidance posts that allow the house to rise straight up when floods come.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along come the Dutch to out-do everybody. See the NPR’s article, Dutch Architects Plan for a Floating Future, for the details on that.

Most Gabriola houses aren’t in danger of floating away anytime soon, but I love the idea of a house that will float instead of flood when endless rains come along in winter.

What do you suppose Gabriola building inspectors would say about floating foundations?

Related:

Tags: , ,