AQUATECTURE

– DESIGNED TO WORK WITH WATER

- SANTHOSH RAJ R

CONTENT
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
• INTRODUCTION
• AIM & OBJECTIVE
• SCOPE & AREA OF CONCERN
• LIMITATIONS
• METHODOLOGIES
CHAPTER 2 – CLIMATE
• CLIMATE CHANGE – PROBLEMS AND ITS EFFECTS
CHAPTER 3 – WATER BUILT TYPOLOGIES
• WATER DWELLING TYPOLOFIES
• TYPES OF WATER DWELLING TYPOLOGIES
1. PILE DWELLING
2. HOUSE BOATS
3. TERP DWELLING
4. ELEVATED HOUSE
5. AMPHIBIUS HOUSE
• SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4 – LITERATURE REVIEW
• WHY AMPHIBIOUS?
• ADVANTAGES OF GOING AMPHIBIOUS
• DIS-ADVABTAGES OF GOING AMPHIBIOUS
• AMPHIBIOUS HOUSE – COMPONENTS
• GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING
1. Floating Capability.
2. Buoyant foundation.
3. Floating calculations.
4. Structural Guidelines.
5. Height calculations.
6. Levee design and utility access.

CHAPTER 5 – CASE STUDY

CHAPTER 4 – CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
ABSTRACT
• living is the most important one for humans in their everyday
life.
• This living of humans has to deal with the day to day disasters
occurring occasionally or frequently. One of the form of this
disaster is flooding.
• In India , Perennial rivers such as Ganga, Brahmaputra, Sutlej
etc. always causes flooding during cyclones and heavy
monsoon. The net result of this destruction is the migration of
people from affected areas.
• This study is to explore the ways of creating sustainable living
environment for the areas that suffers flooding continuously
every year.
• This report will cover the techniques and ways to provide flood
residents a housing that will perform great in both land and
water.

CHAPTER - 1
INTRODUCTION
The word “AQUATECTURE” comprises of two words ‘aqua’(meaning
water) + ‘architecture’.
Aquatecture is defined as- “Architectural style intended to build and
work with water”.
• Flood is the most common Disaster of lndia and causes huge
losses to lives, properties.
 • The most flood prone regions are Ganga and Brahmaputra river
basins. These two rivers alone carry country's 60% of total river
flow.
• The other regions includes Mahanadi, Nannada, Tapti, Krishna
and Cauvery river basins.
• The people in the affected area experiences huge losses and
grievances destroying their homes, their communities, their
networks, their support system, their very way of life.
• Most people do not come back to their homes because their
homes were un-liveable.
• Looking into the matter, there is a need of desiging a new
residence for these areas to withstand the rising water levels
that will eliminate the rebuild process after flood and thereby
providing healthier and safer living
AIM & OBJECTIVE
• The aim is to study and explore aquatecture as a new method
for construction of houses along riverside or on flooding zones.
• To develop more understanding toward floating structures.
• To study the present day techniques for water adaptable living
units.
• To incorporate the design into Indian environment with
available resources and methods of construction.

SCOPE & AREA OF CONCERN

The scope will be limited to the dwelling units focusing on adaptable
design during rise in water conditions such as floods to cater the
design need of such areas concerned with regular flooding every year.
LIMITATIONS
• Establishing adequate technical systems to meet human
comfort
• Ensuring the safety
• Offering an adequate transportation system to carry people to
the structure or proposing suitable entrances according to the
whole project
• Meeting all the physiological requirements of occupants
METHODOLOGY
• Research/data collection
• Case studies
• Research on floating architecture
• Background study on issues and their solutions
• Design process

CHAPTER - 2
CLIMATE CHANGE PROBLEMS AND ITS EFFECTS
• Global average surface temperature will increase by 1.1—6.40 C
within few decades, depending partially on upcoming drifts in
energy use.
• Warming will be extreme over land and at high latitudes
• Rise in sea level is expected to continue at an alarming rate.
 • Indian coastline is susceptible to coastal floods, tsunami,
hurricanes and cyclones.
• A little increment in occurrence and severity of these life-
threatening climate events or variation in coastline is likely to
have devastating effects and can cause residents displacement
from the affected area.
• These displaced people are likely to experience various health
consequences like infectious, nutritional, traumatic,
psychological, and other harsh experiences causing conflict
situations, economic dislocation, and stoppage to the economic
growth of affected area.
CHAPTER - 3
WATER DWELLING TYPOLOGIES
The monsoon rains washes away the lands every year with
great intensity. The people of these regions makes their
accommodations for it and have their own construction
techniques to counter these flooding conditions.Nowadays this
strategy is of floating the house during flooding is modified and
named as 'Amphibious Houses'. Which has the capability to rise
and float during flooding.
TYPES OF WATER DWELLING TYPOLOGIES
Water dwelling units can be categorized based on type of
foundation used and their performance in water. Most of these
techniques were employed in different parts of the world for
centuries in while others are newer approach however; each
type has proven resilient toward flooding conditions.
These includes:
• Pile dwelling (or stilt house).
• House Boats.
• Terp Dwelling.
• Elevated Residential Structures.
• Amphibious Houses.
CHAPTER - 4
LITERATURE REVIEW
WHY AMPHIBIOUS?
• During floods, many people have to abandon their houses
because of water level rise.
• This rise in water level can take up to months to settle back
down destroying the houses, livelihood and including public
utilities.
• It may take a year to restore all the things back to normal but
the threat of the disaster to hit again is also a problem.
• This results in a large amount of migration of people from
those areas to somewhere.
• There had to be a better way so that homes were not damaged
and people can move back to their homes after the flood and
continue to live their life.
• So what if the houses can get out of the way of the floods that
is what an amphibious house does.
Unlike the stilts houses or elevated houses where the height is
fixed, an amphibious house rises above the flood level saving
the house and settles back down after floods like nothing
happened
ADVANTAGES OF GOING AMPHIBIOUS
• Residents of the house can stay safely inside the house even
during floods.
• These houses remain on ground under normal conditions and
rise during flooding.
• The house stays connected to all the municipal services and can
even function during floods.
• Amphibious houses have proven excellent in resisting floods
and has the ability to recover from disaster.
• These houses are proven a better solution for low cost houses
in flood prone regions.
DIS-ADVANTAGES OF GOING AMPHIBIOUS
• These houses are restricted to aesthetic views, as there are
limitations of size and shape of the house.
• There are height restrictions up to the height of guidance post.
• The house must be loaded symmetrically to preserve even
levelling on each sides.
• The house is subjected to stronger external forces including
wind, rain etc.
• There is also limitations to number of floors.
AMPHIBIOUS HOUSE - COMPONENTS
• An amphibious house consists of following main components:
• Buoyant foundation.
• Wet dock and debris control.
• Vertical guidance posts.
• Flexible utility connections.
There are specific standards and guidelines to be followed to
design an amphibious residence to be liveable and perfect
replacement for conventional houses. For an aquatectural,
 amphibious design to be of proper functioning the following
criteria has to be followed:
GUIDELINESS FOR DESIGNING
• Floating Capability.
• Buoyant foundation.
• Floating calculations.
• Structural Guidelines.
• Height calculations.
• Levee design and utility access.
REFERENCE
• Engineering Principles and Practices for Retrofitting Flood-
Prone Residential Structures(Third Edition) FEMA P-259 January
2012
https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-
08/fema259_complete_rev.pdf
• Review on Amphibious House by Tejas Urkudel Amarchand
Kumar, Apoorva
Upadhye, Madhura Padwal, IRJET journal January2019
https://www.irjet.net/archives/V6/i1/IRJET-V6I1290.pdf
• Stilt Housing Technology for Flood Disaster Reduction in the
Rural Areas of Bangladesh by S. Biswas , M.A. Hasan , M. S.
Islam, International Journal of Research in Civil Engineering,
Architecture & Design(2015)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/M-Hasan-
4/publication/276883175_Stilt_Housing_Technology_for_Flood
_Disaster_Reduction_in_the_Rural_Areas_of_Bangladesh/links
 /555b009b08ae6fd2d82849be/Stilt-Housing-Technology-for-
Flood-Disaster-Reduction-in-the-Rural-Areas-of-Bangladesh.pdf
• Houseboats in Kerala - Constructional Features and
Environmental Issues by Dr. Nirmala Mathen, IOSR Journal of
Environmental Science (Dec.
2012).http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jestft/papers/vol1-
issue6/F0163143.pdf
• Floating houses — chances and problems H. Stopp & P.
Strangfeld Department of Building Physics, University of
Applied Sciences HS Lausitz, Germany 2010

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