Britain Is Testing An Amphibious House That Rises Along WIth Floodwaters
Britain's Amphibious House Concept Baca ArchitectsBritain's Environmental Agency is taking a keen interest in housing technology that embraces flooding rather than fights it. When floodwaters rise there aren't a lot of places to hide, and in the oft-rainy UK that can spell big problems and major property damage. So in an attempt to mitigate the problem, British authorities have just built the country's first amphibious house on the banks of the River Thames. When the river rises, the house rises with it. Bring on the Biblical deluge. Britain's Environment Agency is not the first to dream up or even build a floating domicile of this kind--variations on this theme exist in Canada, Germany, and the U.S. for instance, as well as in some Southeast Asian and Latin American countries (where homes are commonly built on stilts to avoid seasonal floodwaters). But for the UK government to take an active interest in...