Floating Home

The Floating Home by i29 interior architects is part of Schoonschip, a new floating village of 46 households. The little development with over 100 residents arose in a disused Amsterdam canal. The location in the north of the city has a strong industrial past, but today it forms one of the fastest changing districts of Amsterdam. The new, floating neighbourhood is intended as an urban ecosystem embedded within the fabric of the city. The whole site is self-sufficient in energy and serves as a prototype for a sustainable life. An “intelligent” pontoon connects the floating houses. On the surface, it is a social connector where the residents meet; under the surface, it is a functional and sustainable connector where all energy, waste and water lines run together.

The specific development of the water parcels was left to all the residents themselves. The architects could be freely chosen. The owner family of the floating home from i29 had very specific ideas: On the one hand, the maximum possible volumes needed to be achieved. On the other, a typical but still surprising house shape should arise. The planners reacted with an optimised volume and a double pitch roof rotated diagonally to the ground plan, which significantly increased the usable room area below it. With its deep-black wooden façades, today the house stands out strikingly from the neighbourhood.

In the interior, on the other hand, i29 relied on a lot of white and only few wooden accents. All three residential levels are connected with an atrium. Using a split-level connection, in addition a small loggia terrace is connected just above the water level. Large windows offer fantastic views and make the small house seem much bigger than it really is. The functions are distributed accordingly to the three levels of the house: Half under the water surface there is the children’s area: at the entrance level is the living room and the private area for the parents. The roof level contains the large combined kitchen and living room and an open terrace with a view of the harbour. Appropriately for the bright interior flooded with light, the JUNG LS 990 range in white was chosen for switches and sockets throughout the house. With its reduced design language and the classic colours, it contributes to the overarching design concept.