Water, a way to live differently
Today, man is more concerned about the environment that surrounds it, the trend is towards the ecology and habitat changes. We see the emergence of new practices, we look for atypical stays away from towns and connection with nature. Grow while the tree houses,Hotels in water or theigloo hotels are. Unfortunately this type of habitat is usually reserved for short stays and not to live every day. It lacks the comfort and luxury expected to live there throughout the year. To overcome these shortcomings, we would have successfully implanted an ordinary house in an unusual environment. Does this exist? Of course yes, and habitat on the water is proof. Barge, houses on stilts or floating, numerous solutions exist if it knows a little.
To give you the means to realize your dreams on the water and answer any questions you have, we have grouped some information in this article that could be helpful. We begin with the reasons that lead us to live on the water, the different types of habitats that can be found as well as standards, legislation and construction techniques associated with it. We will also see how it is possible to feed energy when living on the water and finally we discuss the dreams of architects on the water between the project and utopia.
Water is the source of all life is an element that must be preserved. Man needs it to live and well-being, to grow plants, fish to breathe ... The water will influence the lifestyle and get a special relationship with humans. Today, water is at the heart of many conversations, whether at the level of pollution, rising sea levels due to global warming or the reduction of freshwater sources. We can also see more and more homes built on the water ranging from small craft to luxury residence. The habitat on the water has become a new way to exploit its environment and resources we offer. But in the end why he wants man to live on water?
Many civilizations lived between land and sea, refusing a sedentary lifestyle and advocating closer to nature. Subsequently the water did not remain a mere source of life but has been used to the thirst for conquest of Man in the seventeenth century. It allowed him to sail beyond the land already explored and to discover new horizons, driven par curiosity and interest in his surroundings. The long journeys have required new development in the craft and have led to new ways of life. The development of towns and maritime trade will also help to spread on the water. Man has always wanted to conquer his environment. The advance of the sea is a current issue, saturated cities, rising sea levels, new challenges ... Cities overloaded minds Robinson or necessity, are all reasons why the man to settle on the water.
Reasons for change
Saturated cities:

Japan - Tokyo - District Shinkuju
Indeed, in major cities lack of space is felt. These include Tokyo or Sao Paulo, cities where every inch must be profitable. Note that Tokyo has a population density of 5950 inhabitants / km ² . After occupying the floor space, these cities are high using the heights of the towers and building. The next step is the construction of water, these cities are investing to extend along their coasts. It will bloom and the artificial islands, houseboats or floating houses.
Climate Risk

it's getting hot!
The habitat on the water can be a solution to decongest the cities but also to protect certain natural hazards: floods repeatedly, landslides, global warming. We can talk about including Tokyo, a city whose soil structure was very fragile over time, causing many landslides and land subsidence. To adapt to these natural conditions, the city has revived the buildings on stilts neglected since the establishment of artificial islands. The problem is that the development of these islands alter the ecosystem in which they are located and have contributed to the weakening of the ribs.
Global warming is part of the major issues of housing on the water. Indeed, the current environmental concerns lead us to think outside our daily lives. Global warming leads to the development of new housing types to address the possible rise in the water and the lack of space.
More than just a home, a lifestyle
Why this tendency to live on the water she attracted more and more people? In a world where environmental concern is of paramount importance, habitat on the water finds its place. It is both a way to relax in reviving the natural elements and a means of finding new solutions cleaner and self sufficient. Living on the water, so it is for some, a return to nature and closer to what we are is vital to escape the modern world. Water is the cradle of life. Today, the company overconsumption chokes and some feel the need to isolate themselves in order to find the essence, the true values of life.
Quality of life, living on the water provides a feeling of freedom is a dream adventure. A journey for the senses but also for the mind. Extend quiet means the soft trickle of water, you can enjoy highlights of this one and we let the current take us. Water is also a gentle swaying sometimes lulls us, calms us and sometimes that is unleashed and fascinates us.
The different types of habitats on the water
Cities on Water: The Case of Venice

Venice
Some cities such as Venice seem to float on water, this type of construction is difficult to implement. Venice rests on a pile of wood. Indeed, the stakes with a length of four feet rooted in the soil until it reaches the foundation layerThis structure supports a wood floor on which the masonry and is used to support the most important buildings. These piles usually larch or oak can number in the thousands for a building only. The Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute is built on 1,156,672 postsThe foundation work lasted two years. Today Venice is slowly eaten away by erosion, sand and groundwater have weakened the foundations of collapse. Renovation works are to be made to keep the city, including one of the solutions is to inject the cement in the piles, making tight the entire surface of the base.
Venice is organized as a city entirely conventional, with its electricity networks, water and telephone, except it is built more but tries to keep.

Drawing piles
Houses on stilts
On the same principle of construction, there are houses on stilts. The house is supported by piles driven into the ground. This process has many advantages because it allows a homogeneous insulation, reduces the cost of foundations, created a permanent ventilation under the house thus avoiding the accumulation of Radon. However it is not always possible to implement these buildings where desired, construction zones on the edge of water or shore are often considered non-buildable land that is the problem of building permit, required for this type of housing. We must therefore refer to the PLU (local development plan) the municipality will take into account the protection against risks implemented, the area of your home, the size ... you issue the building permit.
Floating homes

"The Citadel" by the agency Waterstudio
There are also houseboatsAs those built by the company Batiflo who specialized in the construction of such housing. These are real houses, stable and with all the modern comforts. The goal is that it floats, it is necessary to find the floats. Batiflo then imagined boxes high density polymer. Their main qualities are to be extremely hard, lightweight, maneuverable and with a lifespan of 400 years. Not to drift to the body of water on which they are asked, the floats are built into each other by a fastening system and are then connected to the ground by guide columns. These columns can initially follow the water level, preventing flooding, and secondly, to bring home the necessary amenities such as water, electricity or phone. Some floats have a noticeable difference. Their main purpose is not to fly but they support to deal with wastewater. They include an independent sewage treatment plant, thus rejecting the gray water then transformed and qualified water swimming in the water body which is part of the building. On these floats is poured a concrete slab on which is then built housing. The structure of housing is generally timber frame because of its lightness and its ability to move and work according to the movement of the support.
For this type of housing it is mandatory for a building permit. However, as we are on a body of water, the land is not buildable said. The question then depending on the PLU of each municipality if your building permit will be accepted.
The Boat House

The craft Nantes
If you want more mobility, you install in a house boat. These large houseboats are often visible alongside. Docking is not allowed the city but like any house, you must purchase the land. Here we not buy a piece of land but a simple right to the bank, Defined by the size of your boat. The navigation permit is required when it has a motor and it is therefore possible to move it. Indeed, the first advantage that we find to live on a boat that can carry his "home" in all the trips that are undertaken or for short trips that can be done by following rivers or streams. Since these homes are included in barges, the flotation system is the same as a boat is through buoyancy . The origin of this buoyancy is a force vertically oriented despite the gravity acting on the boat. The thrust is defined by the density of water (salt water and fresh water), the weight of the boat (building materials and furnishings) and thus the volume of water displaced.
Small boats

Nomadic marine Benin - Makeni
Living on the water can be in more than one choice, one requires. Many civilizations lived between sea and land, rejecting the sedentary peoples advocating closer to nature. Even today many people live on the water in boats or facilities precarious.
The Badjos, People of Indonesia called the "sea nomads" living on the water. They roam the sea in their canoes. It's a lifestyle choice rooted in their culture, a desire to escape the earthly world to live on the water, get close to the sea with which they maintain a special bond. All acts of life are conducted on water and they enjoy the benefits of the sea including fishing. Intermediate stops are made for the collection but it is still very restricted diet and has implications for the health of Badjos. It can lead to a reduced and atrophied muscles.
For some, living on the water becomes a necessity, this is how real slums are created on the water. Hundreds of small boats summary as in Benin are emerging. These slums river are the result of insufficient resources to deal with the cost of living on land. These nomadic people move along the coast and enjoy the benefits they are on site, leaving behind a lot of waste. These houses therefore pose the question of pollution, because ultimately these people affect the ecosystem and threaten to destroy resources and committing itself to find a new place to live.
Energy and Water
To live on the water with all the conveniences of today's world, we must be able to connect to the network of the city, or support himself on his own. It is therefore necessary to consider and to know the possible means for heating, have electricity or water supply.
The arrival of the conveniences :
Power supply:
As we have seen, there are different types of habitats on the water, the techniques for receiving energy are not adaptable for all cases. The easiest way is the connection to the city, whether for electricity or for the arrival and discharge of wastewater. It may be easy for the cities on the water, houses on stilts, floating or lying under water in a town in marinas and boat house while docked. For electricity, simply plug into the electricity meter at your disposal by drawing lines to your home. Water is a bit more complicated. The public network ignores you most often in terms of supply. It is therefore necessary to have a large reservoir that must be met in a regular public refueling point. If the connection is not possible, it will be able to have autonomy in the functioning of the house by creating its own energy and treating the water to use it and reject it. We will treat this part according to the different natural resources at our disposal, starting with the sun, wind, water and ending with the air.
Solar Energy
The sun's radiation can serve two purposes:
- In the first case, the installation of solar panels in places where there is strong sunlight, the light transforms into heat, usually for water heaters. For this, the sun's rays pass through a glass plate black and heats an absorber due to the greenhouse effect. Conduction, the heat from the absorber is transferred to a closed water circuit which is then routed to the ball using a pump or by gravity. This in turn transmits the heat energy accumulated in the hot water present in the water heater. When the sun is not enough to bring water to proper temperature, the water heater connected to an auxiliary boiler takes over. But this only works if there is insufficient energy panel.
- In the second case, by installing solar panels at the locations where there is strong sunlight, it can transform light into electricity. When the photovoltaic cell is exposed to light, it receives light energy that will allow the flow of electrons between the layers of silicon, thus causing the flow of electrical current. The current product and not used immediately can be stored in batteries for use at night or when demand exceeds production. If we want to use it directly, it will build an inverter to convert DC current, AC.
Wind energy:
Wind can also be used through a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. This device is a wind turbine. Its operating principle is the same as that of a bicycle dynamo. The rotation of the propeller operates a generator that will induce an electrical current that can be used directly. If we want to store the energy in a battery, it will build a rectifier to convert alternating current into direct current. The establishment of a wind system is costly and can not be used continuously. Sometimes the wind is not strong enough or just too far, it is necessary to provide a backup system that also has a significant cost. Installing a wind system therefore requires a true reflection.
Hydropower
Water can also create energy on the same principle as the turbine. The propellers are replaced by a system of turbines operating current of a river or a river. The mechanical energy is transformed into electrical energy.
Ventilation

How a heat pump
Finally, we have air. This element stands for ventilation and room temperature (external or internal). For example, adding a heat pump outside the house, it allows indoor air to warm up naturally. Indeed, one can say that the heat pump takes some heat from outside air increases its temperature level thanks to a system pressure increase, then returns a higher heat in your home. However, to operate the compressor of the heat pump must be driven by an electric motor. Electricity use, however, is well used since for 1 kWh consumed, the house receives the equivalent of 3 to 4 kWh of heat! Another way to break down his house while maintaining the heat it contains is to install a dual-flow VMC. This system allows you to limit heat losses inherent in the breakdown: it recovers heat from stale air extracted from the house and uses it to heat the fresh air filtered from outside through a fan and a heat exchanger. A second fan pumps this new air preheated in the main rooms through vents breaths.
Rejection of amenities:
Electricity, unless not being fully used is stored in batteries, it preserves, we do not throw. However wastewater will not be retained. To get rid of, there are several techniques. When connected as possible, two options exist depending on where you are. Is a sewage is present in your home where you can connect. Either the network is too far away and a buffer tank is set up to your level. In this case, habitat rejects sewage in the tank which is then pumped through lift pumps or vacuum trucks through. It is recommended to set up a mill that will allow a pre-treatment of waste water and then a better flow in pipes of small diameter to facilitate the operation.
If the connection is not possible, there is a solution of the same type as the previous one, you can have yourself a storage tank. It will be your responsibility to make it flush when it is full. Another system, certainly more expensive but allows you more autonomy is the individual treatment plant. It has several operating principles such as forced oxygenation (activated sludge). The treated water can be recovered and used again for irrigation and then released directly into the natural environment (lake, pond, river ...) according to EN 12566-3.

Phytopurification, pond system
Finally, the last system even more ecological and natural but requires a much greater surface: phyto-purification. It uses the natural purification ability of aquatic plants and their environment to clean water. The principle is simple. The waste water will initially be ground. Then discharged into a series of basins made of stone and vegetation. This vegetation serves to support bacterial colonies (aerobic bacteria) that convert organic waste water in minerals, which eventually absorbed by plants. In return, the plants supply the bacteria with oxygen through their roots. They also assimilate nitrate and phosphate as well as some water pollutants and use them as "fertilizer". The water recovered in the different lagoons is then reused for watering or reinstated in her natural environment. Not yet approved by regulators and French GAAP, the lagoon is one of the individual alternative wastewater systems. So he took advantage of a loophole. Before setting up the treatment system, it is essential to talk to the municipality and to request a waiver.
Many techniques are possible and adaptable depending on where you want to implement. The goal is to have a passive house to meet his self-needs, this is essential when you are moving away from a city, away from everything or you live in a mobile home as the house boat .
Dreams of water: between utopia and reality

Ile AZ (Alstom and Zoppini)
Many architects have addressed the issue of housing and life on the water. These include Jean Philippe Zoppini which is under research for the project of the island AZ in partnership with Alstom. It would be a luxury liner containing the characteristics of a town with a marina, hotels, shops ... The island is an area of 10ha and could accommodate 10,000 people. This ship would operate as a cruise ship he was sailing on the sea and could reach a speed of 10 knots, enabling them to avoid the typhoon. At the moment the construction of this project is still valid because the necessary funds, amounting to 2 billion euros are not met.
From a utopian point of view we can find projects that provide the possibility to settle permanently on the sea as Lilypad and the many projects Vincent Callebaut.