4 thoughts on “‘Amphibious house’ designed to resist flooding – video”
It’s somewhat refreshing that the line of thinking of this gent is adaptation rather than harping that we need to spend untold trillions to stop the water from rising.
This is nothing new. I remember seeing video of actual houses like this in Holland years ago.
The house is essentially built on top of a reinforced concrete box which serves as the floatation device. The home is anchored to guideposts that keep it from drifting more than a few inches. One of the anchor posts also houses an umbilical line that delivers power, water, gas, etc. from the top of the pole. Waste water is handled by a small storage tank and a pump that pushes it back down the umbilical.
The only real engineering challenge involved was sufficiently flexible and durable materials for the umbilical.
The only “new” thing about this is that it’s being done in Britain.
Not really “a houseboat on a tether.”
This design is really nothing new. I’ve seen it proposed before. The technical problems to be overcome are chiefly the connections to water and sewer lines, which have to be engineered both to stand the stresses of the “rise with the river” contingency (which cannot be happening all that often, the climate caterwauling clowns notwithstanding) and power/telecommunications linkages.
This is going to involve some engineering skill, far higher building standards than are the norm, and materials which can’t be anything but very expensive.
It’s somewhat refreshing that the line of thinking of this gent is adaptation rather than harping that we need to spend untold trillions to stop the water from rising.
This is nothing new. I remember seeing video of actual houses like this in Holland years ago.
The house is essentially built on top of a reinforced concrete box which serves as the floatation device. The home is anchored to guideposts that keep it from drifting more than a few inches. One of the anchor posts also houses an umbilical line that delivers power, water, gas, etc. from the top of the pole. Waste water is handled by a small storage tank and a pump that pushes it back down the umbilical.
The only real engineering challenge involved was sufficiently flexible and durable materials for the umbilical.
The only “new” thing about this is that it’s being done in Britain.
Not really “a houseboat on a tether.”
This design is really nothing new. I’ve seen it proposed before. The technical problems to be overcome are chiefly the connections to water and sewer lines, which have to be engineered both to stand the stresses of the “rise with the river” contingency (which cannot be happening all that often, the climate caterwauling clowns notwithstanding) and power/telecommunications linkages.
This is going to involve some engineering skill, far higher building standards than are the norm, and materials which can’t be anything but very expensive.
But it’s certainly do-able.
It’s a houseboat on a tether.