Eight floating houses have appeared on a small canal, specially widened to accommodate housing there: it serves to drain water in a polder 4.8 m below sea level. Around - the natural landscape of the outskirts of the "new city" Lelystad (it was founded only in 1967).
The idea of such a settlement arose among eight families: they were united by their childhood spent in such a house on the water. They created the "collective foundation" Drijf in Lelystad (literally "Drift in Lelystad") and commissioned the Amsterdam bureau Attika Architekten to design a mini-village.
Each house meets the needs and desires of a particular family - in size, shape and color (although the average area there is 170 m2). Only a width of 6.9 m was specified by the production process. Houses with a concrete coffered base and timber frame were made in the city of Urk, 40 km from their "home port", and then they were towed to Lelystad along the canals. The size of the narrowest lock on this route determined the width of the houses. The total weight of the eight houses is about 150 tons.
Despite the differences, all houses take advantage of the advantages of living on the water: panoramic views, half-storey, abundant sunlight, water reflections on the walls and ceilings, multi-level terraces above the smooth surface of the canal, direct access to the water.
The architects called the project "Variations on a Theme", including coloristic ones. In addition to durability and lightness, which is extremely important when building on water, besides, not far from the sea, fiber cement panels
EQUITONE [natura] of the Etex holding allowed us to choose different, but compatible with each other color schemes. The common palette of shades of gray and white fits the new houses into the natural environment and makes it possible to immediately identify them as a single complex, and not separate buildings. At the same time, each house received its own individual flavor.
