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When it comes to living below sea level and making it a success, the Netherlands can teach us a few lessons.
And it is likely to become rather crucial as I do not believe we (as in "humanity") shall manage to get our act together sufficiently to avoid a significant water level increase.
Enter Marjan de Blok and her "Schoonship" community.
I find it rather superb
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
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Originally Posted by Captain Morgan
https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...s-schoonschip/
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Sorry
Thank you
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
House boats? Wow, the Sama-Bajau, have been doing this for 1200 years.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
A nice idea but probably rather expensive...
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Some background info.
This lady is very good in telling how unique this is. Well, it isn't. It's of course unique because it's Amsterdam where all novelties are enlarged to a new wonder of the world.
In the late 80s, Dutch water management was tested in a way we hadn't expected: not the sea, but the rivers caused a lot of trouble. (In hindsight, this was a forebode of what has happened in Germany this summer when the rivers flooded and killed so many). The 80s dykes that controlled the river proved to be very weak and even broke in some places, flooding the land, houses etc. After that near-major incident, the government spent millions to improve the dykes and the ways the Dutch contain the water.
I use the word 'contain' because in some case, it was easier, cheaper and safer NOT to contain the water: to give it the opportunity to flow freely. It sounds weird, but in some cases it's better to give the river more room. We have two words for it: 'binnendijks' en 'buitendijks': inside the (safety) of the dyke, and outside the (safety) of the dyke. Historically nothing new. For ages, the Dutch lived this way. People outside the dykes lived on small, self-built hills, called 'terpen' and they were used to the fact that they would be cut off from the mainland during periods in the winter. Ice was a blessing for them: with skates and a sledge, they were able to get supplies. When the population grew, the single 'terpen' were not enough to house the people on it, so the started to build dykes: adding dry living space, but narrowing the way of the water.
The 80s (near) floods showed that the water needed space. But also the people needed a spot to live in this densely populated country. So, villages like the one mentioned by the OP were built along the rivers. And big cities like Nijmegen (east, near the German border) and Arnhem have big plans for floating houses.
This was built in 2011
Along a Dutch river are 4 dykes, 2 on either side, and parallel. The inner dykes are the summer dykes, the outside dykes are the winter dykes. The land between the summer and winter dyke is the overflow area, the 'uiterwaard'. The narrowest distance between the inner (or summer) dykes controls the width of the river during the summer: the zomerbed. The inner dykes are relatively low, because during the summer, the river is at it's lowest point. When the rain starts to fall in the Autumn, the river will rise and flow over the summer dykes onto the uiterwaarden and the total winter width is the winter bed. The houses pictured here are in the uiterwaard area, near the winterdyke.
Then the situation in Amsterdam... All houses on land built after 1900 have a leasehold construction. The council owns the ground, the home owner owns 'the bricks' and pays a (hefty) sum to the city council every year. It's a well-known situation in Amsterdam and getting a mortgage isn't too difficult. With the interoduction of these floating houses along the rivers, some entrepreneurs in Amsterdam made good use of the situation: there's no ground for the city council to claim! The water is owned by the national government. All owners of these houses are -according to a 2019 article in 'Trouw' (Dutch newspaper) highly educated, well-to-do and with big networks of knowing people for EU funds, national funds etc.
These floating homes only work when you have a water area without current, without shipping traffic close-by and without big waves due to storm etc. It's not certain that it will work in -let's say- Rotterdam. Where the river is more heavily used.
Last edited by thieuster; 20th December 2021 at 20:25.
Anyone in the UK wanting to put their 'toe in the water' and try it out, albeit in a somewhat less ambitious manner, might be interested in this venture - https://waterfront-living.com/
We were used to so-called 'woonboten': living-boats or in proper English: houseboats. Originally ships that sailed the rivers of the Continent. These boats are called 'spitsen' due to the pointy nose. Later, this evoluated into floating tubs with all sorts of modern homes on top. I vaguely remember that this sort of houseboats are also familiar near Canary Warf. Living on a houseboat is immensely popular in the Netherlands. It gives people a 'bohemian feeling' of some sort.
The modern floating houses are the 21st Century adaptation. I think that the 'waterfront-living' houses would sell like hot cakes here in the Netherlands.
One thing though. No-one mentions the rats that will be attracted to living near those houses. Garbage, dining outside with left-overs will attract these rodents. It's a fact not mentioned in the article. If you -like me- stayed on yachts in the harbour, you'll have spotted them and you'll have stories to tell about rats the size of a beagle.
Last edited by thieuster; 20th December 2021 at 22:03.
My dear old long departed Nan was what you might call very forthright in her opinions and expressing them and had a unusually strong dislike for people who lived on boats.
She was very direct that one can never trust someone who can “Do a moonlit flit, with there whole house, overnight”, “Just like pikeys, but these ffers float”
Not advice I tend to live my life by and I never got to the bottom of why she had this deep seated view.
I think that Ron Wood (Rolling Stones) is was born on a houseboat. Something like Boat People, I think.
Interestingly, people who lived - and live - on houseboats here, are normally not associated with Travellers etc. There's always a 'rough edge' on the outskirts of every town where people live remotely and far away from peeking official eyes. And yes, some used to live on a houseboat because it was a sure way of being 'off grid' with no interference from the authorities.
I started rowing when I was a student, during the late 70s. That was the period when you rowed your skiff along some grubby houseboats with mean dogs staring at you. But when I come to think about it, that all changed within 10 yrs or so. The grubby stuff disappeared, the dykes were strengthened, with new mooring places. And now, there are architectural masterpieces floating on the water. Complete with tapwater,
electrics gas and internet.
Oh I never meant to suggest she was rational ;-) I also suspect she’d have a fit over some of the gentrification around Southwark and Bermondsey where she lived her whole life.
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