The lightweight timber-framed structure is fairly traditional in its form, but sits inside an excavated "wet dock" made from steel sheet piling with a mesh base to allow water to enter and escape naturally. Rather than having a house that's up in the air you get proper engagement with the garden." The garden design incorporates terraces that act as an "early warning system" for flooding "The benefit of an 'amphibious house' is that it looks in all intents and purposes like a normal house.
"If we'd have gone for an elevated house the ground floor would have been so high, almost two metres off the ground, the house would have looked out of keeping with its neighbours," explained Coutts. "Rather than building flood defences, considers a different approach, to acknowledge man cannot beat nature and to actually make space for water," said Coutts. "Our work, until recently, was better known in Holland than here in the UK."īaca considered a number of different approaches to dealing with the unpredictable water levels on the site, including a fully floating structure – an option ruled out by officials from the government's Environment Agency – and raising the house on stilts. The original design for the Amphibious House