i29 has built a sustainable and eco-friendly floating home on a disused canal of Amsterdam, the Netherlands with black timber facade and cut-out angular roof. 

The house was realized as part of a big urban masterplan by Space&Matter to create a new floating village providing home over 100 residents and establishing a connection in between living and the water.

Named Floating Home, the three-storey house is location in Schoonschip, a new floating village that aims to create Europe’s most sustainable floating community. 

The Floating Home is one of 46 dwellings and is distinguished with its smart and eco-friendly design by integrating energy-efficient systems. 

"The location has a strong industrial past but today it is one of the most rapidly changing city parts of Amsterdam transforming into a more multi-functional living area," said the architects. 

"The new floating neighborhood is intended to be an urban ecosystem embedded within the fabric of the city: making full use of ambient energy and water for use and re-use, cycling nutrients and minimizing waste, plus creating space for natural biodiversity."

The site is energy self-sufficient, employs circular building practices, and serves as a showcase for sustainable living. A smart jetty connects the 46 floating households with each other and the quay. 

On the top surface, the jetty is a social connector where people meet. Down below the surface, the jetty is a functional and sustainable connector with all the energy, waste, and water lines attached to every household connected together.

"Within the smart grid of the village and the given boundaries of every water plot, every single home is able to be unique in architecture and interior design," added the studio.

"All inhabitants were allowed to choose their own preferred architect." 

"Our client challenged us to design a home that would maximize the space within the volume boundaries of the plot and still have a typical yet surprising house shape," the architects continued.  

The floating volume has a pitched roof, but the coping of the roof is turned diagonal in the floor plan which gives an optimization in usable space on the inside and an outspoken architectural design on the outside. 

As the studio highlights, architecture and interior designs were designed as intertwined and connected as possible on each level to make a clear and unified experience. 

The floating home's exterior design is the result of a space extensional study within the interior and vice versa. All areas are in open connection to the atrium which comprises three floors. 

The layout is extended with a split level connection to a loggia terrace just above the water level. The interior and facade play with the views on the outside. 

Views appear and disappear while moving through the home. The basement offers direct water-level views, the living room only gives a view of the surroundings when sitting in the lounge and the kitchen on the top floor has direct views towards the south and north side of the canal. On the top floor, a cut out of the roof enables a loggia and open terrace with a view towards the harbor in the west.

Following the principles of a tight budget for this project, With simple yet smart interventions, this project still has a unified architecture and interior design that leaves a strong impression. 

"At the same time, the floating home is extremely energy efficient, eco-friendly, and built with a small footprint. Sustainability goes even to a higher level with the implementation in the smart grid of the floating village. Energy can be even more valuable when you share it," said the studio.

Level 1 plan

Level 2 plan

Level 3 plan

Section

Space&Matter previously transformed Amsterdam’s former bridge houses into tiny SWEETS hotel to give a new life to this industrial heritage.

Project facts

Project name: Floating Home 

Architects: i29

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Urban plan: Space&Matter

Sustainability Advice: Metabolic

Management: Gemeente Amsterdam

Contractor: Hagoort bouw

Interior Builder: Simon Sintenie

All images © i29 / Ewout Huibers

All drawings © i29

> via i29 & Space&Matter