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Baca Architects moors modular floating home on Chichester Canal
Baca Architects – the studio behind the UK's first amphibious house – has completed a boxy floating home on Chichester Canal in southern England.
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The London-based architects developed the floating house as a prototype with British company Floating Homes.
The replicable design named Chichester won an ideas competition seeking solutions to London's housing crisis earlier this year.
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Baca Architects referenced the design of canal boats when drawing up plans for the house, but increased the scale and included plenty of windows to create a more spacious and luxurious home on the water.
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The Chichester model features an open plan living, kitchen and dining area with a large window in the corner of the lounge room that offers views out onto the lily pad-covered water.
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"Internally the proportions are very different to a canal boat but with the same ethos of space efficiency," explained the studio.
"These homes are not only practical and affordable, but create a sense of sanctuary by living on water, which is a unique experience in most cities."
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The architects played with the traditional rectangular shape of house boats to create a split-level design. A white staircase leads from the lounge up to a terrace carved into the flat roof of the house and surrounded by glazed balustrades.
Simple finishes like white-painted walls and pale floorboards keep the space light and open.
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Restricted access to the canal meant that the structure had to be craned into position. Its floating concrete foundations – weighing over 40 tonnes – were lifted and placed first.
The modular upper structure, which features pre-insulated wooden panels that are clad in cedar, was assembled in a factory and then placed on top.
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Chichester is the latest in a series of floating houses by Baca Architects, which previously designed the Amphibious House, a design equipped to deal with the flood waters of the River Thames.
The Chichester prototype follows a surge of interest in floating buildings, which respond to rising sea levels and a shortage of development sites. Other proposals include mass housing on London's canals and amphibious cities in China.
Photography is courtesy of Floating Homes Ltd.