Floating home by i29 architects is part of Schoonschip, a new floating village of 46 households that aims to create Europe’s most sustainable floating community. Based on an urban plan by Space&Matter, over 100 residents moved into and revitalized a disused canal and established themselves a living on the water.
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The location has a strong industrial past but today it is one of the most rapid changing city parts of Amsterdam transforming into a more multi functional living area. The new floating neighborhood is intended to be an urban ecosystem embedded within the fabric of the city: making full use of ambient energy and water for use and re-use, cycling nutrients and minimizing waste, plus creating space for natural biodiversity.
The site is energy self-sufficient, employs circular building practices and serves as a showcase for sustainable living. A smart jetty connects the 46 floating households with each other and the quay. On the top surface, the jetty is a social connector where people meet. Down below the surface, the jetty is a functional and sustainable connector with all the energy, waste and water lines attached to every household connected together.
Within the smart grid of the village and the given boundaries of every water plot, every single home is able to be unique in architecture and interior design. All inhabitants were allowed to choose their own preferred architect. Our client challenged us to design a home which would maximize the space within the volume boundaries of the plot and still have a typical yet surprising house shape. The floating volume has a pitched roof, but the coping of the roof is turned diagonal in the floor plan which gives an optimization in usable space on the inside and an outspoken architectural design on the outside.
Credits:
Client: private
Design: i29 architects
Object: Schoonschip Kavel 03
Urban plan: Space & Matter
Sustainability advice: Metabolic
Management: Gemeente Amsterdam
Contractor: Hagoort bouw
Interior builder: Simon Sintenie
Photos: i29 / Ewout Huibers