Floating Eco-Homes In The Netherlands
by Justin Thomas, Virginia 
on 03. 6.07
Small and densely populated, the Netherlands is one of the countries most at risk from climate change and rising sea levels. One Dutch construction company, Dura Vermeer, has developed homes that can float with rising waters. Thirty-seven of these homes line the waterfront at Maasbommel, panelled in blue, yellow and green. They have a hollow concrete cube at the base to give them buoyancy. The next time the Meuse river bursts its banks, the house will rise with it (see video). Electricity and water are pumped in through flexible pipes. In all, the houses can withstand a rise in the water table of up to 13ft. At a starting price of 260,000 euros (£180,000 or $310,000), the houses are not a cheap option, but demand is high. :: Gouden Kust via BBC News
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Does the price tag include the property rights? What I mean is, do you have to own a riverside area, then they will install the house for you? It doesn't sound like it too me.
310,000 isn't that expensive for northeast and California in America.
I want one. Needs solar panels on the roof though.
That great that the dutch are responding to the global warming threat with floating homes. Hopefully mainstream mass media can catch on to the threat. Thanks to Al Gore for making global warming a conversation piece at starbucks. Whatever works to get peoples attention that there is a problem is great even if it is a marketing attempt.
It's nice to sleep on a boat. Very relaxing. These probably don't rock very much at all, though.
And the water underneath can be the cold end of a heat exchanger!
In the event of a catostrophic storm, these might have to be sunk to protect them. If you build them out of dryable materials, they'd be great.
I spent last summer in Zeeland (in the south of the Netherlands). There was a catastrophic failure of the dyke system there within living memory and the Dutch are, of course, concerned about the potential for rising sea levels.
We hear a great deal about how climate change will alter the lives of the world's poorest. The Netherlands is one of the world's wealthiest nations and, to survive as such, will have to devise some significant feats of engineering (I heard people discussing floating cities). They've some amazing engineering to live with the sea; if anybody has the experience to innovate in this area, it's the Dutch.
Where are viable places to build human habitation now? The Dutch, because of the constraints of space, will have to continue to build on locations that would otherwise seem too risky for future use. What of nations with much more area inland? What's to be done if coastal cities must be abandoned? (And, concurrently, what's going to stop us from plowing over otherwise viable ecosystems inland in the process?) Is there any sort of international body that is planning and advising on this?
Dear Treehugger, please explane to me what s eco-friendly of these houses. Living in the Netherlands I find these a fairly unpleasant distraction while biking through Dutch countryside (if the tiny pieces of land unbuild can still be called as such).
Without any further infomation I would say this is a just a company trying to earn some money and a municipality doing the same, while telling the public its somehow connected to fighting climate change and Treehugger digging it as such.