全球氣候越來越溫暖，極地的冰層大量融化，全國有超過四分之一的低於海平面的荷蘭，為了國家生存不得不絞盡腦汁的想辦法來應付上升的速度越來越快的海平面。向來充滿創意和前衛的荷蘭建築師，於是創造出會「游泳」的「兩棲屋」（Amphibious Houses）房子，在未來，即使海水或河川洪水溢流過堤防，這些兩棲屋本身不會被沖毀，而會漂浮在水面上，水漲的再高也不怕。

設計兩棲屋的荷蘭建築師是Koen Olthuis，也是建築師事務所Waterstudio.NL的主持人，顧名思義，這個事務所以設計水上住宅而著稱。兩棲屋的概念不只是在於單棟建築物，建築師雄心勃勃的創造能夠漂浮的兩棲社區，因此採用樂高積木的概念，每一棟兩棲屋都設計成可以跟任何其他的兩棲戶相互連結扣合，許多兩棲屋組合在一起就成了兩棲社區，洪水來臨時，整個社區一起安全的漂浮在水面上。

 別懷疑，兩棲屋已經成真了，目前荷蘭已經蓋了37棟的兩棲屋了，而且還計畫建造另外兩萬一千多棟類似的兩棲屋（每120平方公尺的造價大約是250,000 到300,000 歐元），所以，未來，荷蘭可能也會出現不折不扣的「漂浮城市」。

 

   也許，我們台灣雲林嘉義地勢低窪的地區的住宅也可以學習這樣的概念？

 

以下轉載一篇關於荷蘭兩棲屋的報導：

原文出處：http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377050,00.html

 

September 26, 2005 AMPHIBIOUS HOUSES

Dutch Answer to Flooding: Build Houses that Swim

The Dutch are gearing up for climate change with amphibious houses. If rivers rise above their banks, the houses simply rise upwards as well. Such innovation could be good news for hurricane and flood-stunned . But are water lovers prepared to live on swimming family arks?

Looking out from the terrace, heaven and earth merge into a grey blur. Heavy rain pours so incessantly that one would expect Anne van der Molen to be getting just a little nervous.

"Tomorrow does not look any better, according to the weather forecast," she says, calmly sipping her coffee. She does so in spite of the fact that her house stands directly on the Maas dyke - on the side facing the river, to be exact. Yet the nurse, sitting on her garden chair under the awning, feels as cozy and safe as if she were "snowed in up in a mountain hut, with a log fire glowing and the pantry full." The Maas can go on rising as much as it likes, for all she cares. Her house can swim. As the water level climbs, the house itself can move up five meters, if necessary. "The elements don't bother me," she says.

There are 37 houses strung along this branch of the Maas like a row of beads. At first glance, they seem quite unremarkable. Two storys high, semicircular metal roofs and yellow, green or blue facades - hardly any clues let on that these are The ' first amphibious houses. The cellar, in this case, is not built into the earth. Instead, it is on a platform - and is much more than a mere storage room. The hollow foundation of each house works in the same way as the hull of a ship, buoying the structure up above water. To prevent the swimming houses from floating away, they slide up two broad steel posts - and as the water level sinks, so they sink back down again.

"The columns have been driven deep into solid ground," explains Dick van Gooswilligen from the Dura Vermeer construction company. "They are even strong enough to withstand currents you would find on the open seas." Gooswilligen is currently busy guiding dozens of journalists from the through the watertight settlement in the Maasbommel district, close to Nijmegen. "As global warming causes the sea level to rise, this is the solution," he explains into a microphone. "Housing of this type is the future for the delta regions of the world, the ones which face the greatest danger."

Soundbites like these are just what Americans want to hear these days. Hurricane Katrina and her lesser cousin Hurricane Rita have sparked interest in the low lying . Hordes of hydraulic engineers from Louisiana or Texas are making the pilgrimage to the North Sea coastline to look at the fortifications. The inland river dykes are also considered exemplary models.

The Sinks a little Lower Every Year

German catastrophe management teams are just as curious. Climate patterns today suggest that torrential rainfall is something we can expect plenty more of in the future. This year's floods in the Alps or those along the River Elbe three years ago could well be warning signs of what awaits us. Climatologists predict that precipitation in The Netherlands could increase as much as 25 percent. At the same time, because of the small kingdom's dense population, there is increasing pressure to build in areas prone to flooding. Already, though, the country defies the laws of physics simply by existing: More than a quarter of its land lies below sea level. And, year by year, the land is sinking a little bit lower. The Dutch protect themselves from going under through a network of canals and pumps. It is not only the sea which threatens the mighty barrage on the coast. On the other side lies the Rhine River, which branches out and forms a wide-reaching delta with the Maas. To prevent such huge swaths of land from flooding in summer and winter storms, the Dutch are designating more and more land along their rivers as flood zones. Within the next few decades, the area will compose close to 500,000 hectares -- or about twice the size of the German state of Saarland.

This will only be possible if people, industry and agriculture can be successfully relocated to safe territory - which is hard to imagine, given the resistance mounted by some of those affected. Officials have, therefore, decided to demonstrate first of all that it is possible to live in the so-called flood zones. In early October, 15 test areas were announced. A stringent ban on construction in these areas has now been lifted - provided buildings constructed are amphibious houses and nothing else. This means that, in a worst case scenario, excess water from flooded rivers can still be diverted this way.

"You cannot fight water, you have to learn how to live with it", states Sybilla Dekker, the minister in charge. Her department has arranged a competition for engineers, urban planners and architects to design living accommodation, greenhouses, parking lots and factories which would float and could grow into "waterproof" towns.

One of the leading architects in this relatively new discipline of maritime architecture is Koen Olthuis. His aptly named Waterstudio.nl office has already designed a number of contemporary houseboats with a parking deck for the car and lower deck storage for a motorboat. Now, his team is even coming up with plans for office buildings a hundred meters in height that "swim." The key to making this idea a reality is a patented technique whereby the foundation of the construction can be transformed into a float. A foam core is encased in concrete, with steel cables securing it against the pull of potential currents. Individual pontoons, whether for residential blocks or chicken coops, can be joined to one another like Lego blocks. As a result, a maritime settlement is born.

"This construction model is built to last at least one hundred years," Olthuis says. If anything should happen to the foundation, there is no need to call in the construction company. Instead, the whole thing can be taken to the dockyard.

Family "arks" of the future

The architect from Rijswijk hopes to tap into a worldwide trend. Increasing numbers of people are gravitating towards the water, out of necessity, for financial gain or, in some cases, quite simply for the wonderful view. "Thanks to watertight buildings, this impulse need not be fateful," he says. His bobbing buildings have not only found favor in the Polder lands, he has also prepared concepts for Dubai.

The first town based on this model, numbering 12,000 houses, might conceivably be built close to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The are particularly low in this area. When planes come in for a landing here, one can see countless rectangular islets amid a picturesque, watery landscape. Canals weave their way like veins through the swaying reeds of green land which invariably opens out into ponds or lakes. By the year 2010, amphibious houses like those in Maasbommel may well form the first residential area here - or perhaps greenhouses will dominate the landscape, like the one opened earlier this month by the minister of agriculture in The Hague.

At this stage, such model houses cost more than conventional housing. The amphibious buildings in Maasbommel cost approximately €250,000 to €300,000 for a 120 square meter home. This is due in part to the flexible nature of the construction which also plays a role in creating feed lines for gas, electricity, drinking water and drainage. Like the foundation, they, too, have to be able to adapt to the changes in height of the premises.

But, when the floating construction model goes more mainstream, the price of a one family "ark" should drop dramatically. "At the end of the day, we will save on a lot of the costs conventional building methods incur doing things like securing foundations in soft ground. We won't have to contend with that," Olthuis points out. It remains an utter mystery to him why water-proofed construction is not yet common practice.

He can only watch and shake his head as his television broadcasts fresh pictures of floods in one part of the world or another. "Those people, breaking their backs piling sandbags on their doorsteps, I feel really sorry for them."

Translated from the German by Gareth Davies

 

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其他Amphibious Houses相關報導：http://inhabitat.com/blog/2005/10/04/amphibious-houses/

WATERSTUDIO’S FLOOD-RESISTANT ARCHITECTURE :  http://inhabitat.com/blog/2006/08/28/waterstudios-amphibious-architecture/

INTERVIEW: Koen Olthius of WaterStudio.nl :  http://inhabitat.com/blog/2006/08/28/waterstudios-amphibious-architecture/

想要了解Waterstudio.NL的漂浮屋概念，請觀賞這個影片:　Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio.NL features in Discovery Channel's program Daily Planet. http://www.waterstudio.nl/en/pub060424_dc.html

Waterstudio.NL的網站（不過好像都是荷文，沒有英文）http://www.waterstudio.nl/

以下是Waterstudio.NL其他 "Flood-proof Architecture" 的作品（圖片來自　Inhibitat.com）

 

 

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另外，還有一篇MSN.com的報導，原文連結：http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4852739/

 

Metal pylons are seen, right, between the foundations of amphibian houses under construction in Maasbommel, Netherlands. Photo Credit: Peter Dejong / AP

These homes are built for climate change

Floods? No problem, they just float above the current

By Anthony Deutsch

The Associated Press

Updated: 7:56 a.m. MT May 7, 2004

MAASBOMMEL, - This low-lying land has a new weapon in its never-ending battle with the tides: amphibian houses.

For centuries, the Dutch have built dikes to protect themselves from the sea. Now, with predictions of more frequent flooding due to climate change, they are looking for ways to live with water, not fight it.

That change of thinking is reflected at a new housing project in this central Dutch village about 60 miles southeast of Amsterdam. It is a community of amphibious homes.

Unlike the houseboats that line many Dutch canals or the floating villages of Asia, the several dozen homes are being built on solid ground. But they also are designed to float on flood water.

Each house is made of lightweight wood, and the concrete base is hollow, giving it ship-like buoyancy.

With no foundations anchored in the earth, the structure rests on the ground and is fastened to 15-foot-long mooring posts with sliding rings, allowing it to float upward should the river flood. All the electrical cables, water and sewage flow through flexible pipes inside the mooring piles.

The 700-square-foot structures are on the “wrong” side of a dike in a beautiful flood plain of one of the country’s main waterways, the Maas River, overlooking lush marshland and a harbor.

Housing also drives idea
That addresses another constant fight in the Netherlands — finding space for housing in Europe’s most densely populated country, says Chris Zevenbergen of Dura Vermeer, the company behind the project.

He says floating houses could help make up the 40 percent shortfall in land suitable for development over the next 50 years.

At a starting price of 260,000 euros, or about $310,000, for a house with three small bedrooms, the homes are at the high end of the market for a village like Maasbommel. But many have been sold, and the first residents are about to move in.

“They are pretty much just regular houses,” says builder Hans van de Beek. “The only difference is that when the water rises, they rise.”

Boats required
So, during times of high water, people will need a boat to get from the dike where they park their car to the “comfort” of their floating home.

For more than 1,000 years the Dutch have been holding back the sea, and even reclaiming it. Landfills and windmill-driven pumps have created vast fields, called polders, for new cities, pastures and cropland. If it weren’t for its system of dikes and canals, as much as half of the could be submerged.

The country was hit by flooding twice in the past decade, in 1993 and 1995, causing billions of dollars in damage. In 1953, more than 1,800 people died during a deluge, referred to ever since simply as “the disaster.”

Scientists warn that global warming will make it worse. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change predicts rainfall in the could increase by up to 25 percent and the sea level could rise 43 inches in this century.

“Due to the changing climate, the and its delta areas will be confronted with rising water,” Zevenbergen says. “This is a way for people to live in the low-lying areas that would otherwise be uninhabitable.”