Mor Temor

2.2     Netherlands, Seattle and Vancouver BC Floating 

          Neighborhoods

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Architects and planners in the Netherlands, Seattle and Vancouver BC introduce living on water as a logical response to the predicted rise of the influx of water and at the same time the growing demand of space for housing (Fig.3). Next to contributing to water management, floating neighborhoods can simply be very attractive to the modern dweller, considered that real estate on shore land is usually more expensive than regular land.

Fig. 3 A view of some of the Floating Homes in Seattle.

Housing project developers in these areas promote living near water as never before (Fig. 4). Realtors sell houseboats using phrases as: “a permanent holiday feeling”, “living with the seasons” and “a feeling of freedom”.

 Fig. 4 Project developers promote living near water as never before. Canoe Pass Village in Vancouver B.C. Developed and built by IMFS and was Canada's first legalized Floating Home Community. Opened in Spring of 1985.

Nothing seems to stand in the way of a flood of floating houses overflowing the Netherlands, Seattle and Vancouver BC. Architects and builders are waiting for a political, legal and planning breakthrough. But so far, the technological and architectural vocabulary to describe and create attractive floating neighborhoods is still poor. Urban and landscape planners hardly think of other structures than houseboats alongside a canal or in a marina setting (Fig. 5).

   Fig. 5 Houseboats in a marina setting; the most innovative of the current vocabulary.

Arch. Mor Temor